Most people dream about winning the National Lottery, but what happens after you discover you have the winning ticket? Is it easy to change from living a little, to living a Lotto? Christen Pears finds out.

IT'S the closest I'll ever come to winning the National Lottery. I'm shown into the winners' room at Camelot's regional centre in Sunderland and presented with a mug, keyring and pen all bearing the familiar crossed fingers logo. Sadly, there's no million pound cheque to go with it but I get the general idea.

The walls are painted bright green and purple. A bottle of champagne waits on the table, ready to toast the winner, and there are party poppers aplenty.

"When most people come in after they've won, they're more excited by the goody bag than with the cheque," explains regional director Alan Drummond. "I suppose at that stage, they're still so dazed, it hasn't sunk in yet. For some people, it can take days, even weeks to get used to the idea."

Millions of people dream about winning the Lottery, or Lotto as it was re-named in May, but most don't think beyond matching the numbers on their ticket to those on the television screen. For some, it can be a surprisingly difficult experience.

"We had one couple in their 70s who won about £500,000. When I started asking about whether they wanted to have publicity, the man went off it. He started hurling abuse at me. It went on for about five minutes. He apologised later but he was obviously deeply affected by the win," says Alan.

Since it started nearly eight years ago, the Lottery has created more than 1,300 millionaires. From the moment they phone the claim line, Camelot staff are on hand to help them through the process, and most are visited at home by an advisor the next day. All of the advisors are counsellors, trained to deal with any problems that may arise.

"There are two big problems for people at that stage. The first is, do they tell someone? They might be bursting with the good news but they don't want any publicity.

"The other is where to put the ticket. It's suddenly worth a lot of money. A lot of women who come in keep it in their bras and the men have been known to put it in their underpants or even tape it to their chest in a plastic bag."

The winners are then invited to the regional centre, situated on Sunderland's Doxford Business Park. They usually spend a couple of hours there while their ticket is validated, they sign the paperwork and, of course, they receive the cheque.

Someone is on hand to explain what happens next and they're invited back in a couple of weeks to meet an advisory panel, who can give them all the information they need about financial and legal decisions they face. They're also advised about publicity.

"Most people choose not to go public. We have one man who won £5m two years ago and his family still don't know, but it's very hard to keep something like that secret. In my experience, I find the people who do choose to have publicity adjust a lot quicker to the situation than those who don't."

One person who's been through the process is 41-year-old Shirley Garbutt from Bedale in North Yorkshire. She scooped £1.9m in January 2001.

It was a Wednesday evening draw and she was out driving her taxi when the numbers were drawn. She popped home at 9.30pm for the sandwich and cup of tea that would keep her going until the end of her shift, and check her lottery numbers with her husband Bob. As Bob read them out, she realised she had six numbers.

"I couldn't believe it, so I had to check again and then I didn't claim at first because I thought, knowing my luck, there'd be about 100 other winners. After a while, it came up on Teletext that there were only two and the estimated jackpot was £1.9m. I claimed pretty quickly after that," she says.

Still in a daze, she went back to work and finished her shift but the next morning she and Bob went to the Camelot centre to verify the ticket and pick up the cheque.

"At that stage, everything was still spinning and I didn't quite believe it but everyone at Camelot was very relaxed, very casual. They give you as much or as little help as you need but they don't try to force you into anything. Even now, 18 months on, I know there's someone at the end of the phone line if I need any help but fortunately, everything has been really smooth for us."

Shirley opted for publicity straight away. "In a village the size of ours, it would be stupid to try and keep something like that secret. I was so excited, I had told one of the other drivers on the Wednesday night but asked him not to say anything until it was all confirmed. But when my daughter Beverley went to school the next morning, people were asking her whether it was true."

She has taken the whole thing in her stride. She enjoys the publicity and has appeared on television, radio and has featured in several newspapers and magazines.

Her attitude to media attention is indicative of the way she's handled the win in general. The family have moved into a bigger house and they have holidays every few months, but Shirley still drives her taxi. There's nothing flash about her. She's down-to-earth and still has fish and chips with her friends on a Friday night.

"You read about people who go and blow everything on cars or aeroplanes but we made the decision from the start to be sensible. People treat us exactly the same. I can still go into the pub and someone at the bar will ask me if I want a drink. It's when you start losing your friends and family that it stops being a good thing."

Alan agrees. He's been in the job since the Lottery started and has seen how even a small win can affect someone.

"Anyone who says it isn't going to change their lives doesn't know what they're talking about. The winners have got to allow it to change their lives. It's not going to change them as an individual but it is going to change their lifestyle. It's a lot to take in and we have to help them to come to terms with it."