best for REAL LIFE
She’s devoted over 40 years of her life to ‘comping’, winning everything from exotic holidays to a new car. Here, Lyndsey Bruce shares the secrets of her success…
Lying by the pool at a luxury spa, I sighed with contentment. The only decisions I had to make were what treatment to have and when to have afternoon tea. The best part of my week-long pampering stay? It hadn’t cost me a single penny.
I’d won it in a competition – just one of thousands of prizes I’d been lucky enough to enjoy in the 40 years I’d been an avid ‘comper’…
Back then, if you’d told me that entering competitions would take me to far-flung foreign countries, fill my home with expensive gadgets and fashion, and enable me to treat family and friends with wonderful presents, I simply wouldn’t have believed you. Comping has won me prizes worth thousands of pounds, and countless amazing experiences. It really has been a life-changing hobby.
I’d never intended to become such a devoted comper and I suppose I fell into it by accident when, on a whim, I entered a phone-in competition on Radio Luxembourg in the early 1980s. The prize was a silver and purple belt. I won and caught the comping bug, loving the feeling of anticipation, waiting to hear if I’d been successful, and the thrill of receiving the prize when I was.
I couldn’t wait to enter the next competition!
In those days, comping was very different. With no internet or social media, you had to put more effort in. I began to scour supermarkets for brands that were running competitions on the back of packets, and leaflets in shops. There were dedicated magazines that I subscribed to, and some TV channels, such as ITV, ran them, too.
I kept a notebook on my desk at work to keep track of them all and would spend time in the evenings and at weekends entering competitions.
At first, friends and family thought it was a bizarre hobby – they just didn’t get it. However, as I began to win things, they understood my enthusiasm, especially when I shared my winnings with them! Prizes could be anything from flowers to a fridge-freezer – I only entered a competition if I actually wanted the prize, though, not just for the sake of it.
In 1995, I was on the TV show Wheel Of Fortune and won a £20,000 car, which was amazing.
I’ve won so many other prizes over the years, I’ve lost count, but some of the most memorable have been a weekend in Madrid in 2017 with flights, accommodation and tickets to see Real Madrid play Atlético de Madrid in the UEFA Champions League semi-final, which I won after entering a competition on the back of a crisp packet.
