Tom Champagne, who has died aged 70, became the public face of the British Reader’s Digest as its longest serving and most renowned Prize Draw Manager.
For almost 15 years, Champagne was the “front man” in the selection and presentation of the company’s awards, distributing more than £6 million in prize money to hundreds of winners. It is estimated that his name appeared on close to a billion marketing promotions during that time .
To Reader’s Digest management the unusual surname, of French-Canadian origin, seemed problematic at first: they predicted that no one would believe “Tom Champagne” really existed, and proposed that he adopt a pseudonym for their promotional leaflets. Tom Champagne, however, refused to conceal his identity, and took to carrying his birth certificate as proof that his real name was not the invention of an overenthusiastic copy writer.
Prize winners were not always easy to locate: Champagne sometimes had to track them down as far afield as Australia and the Falklands.
The top prize of £250,000 was given away twice a year at congratulatory lunches. Television celebrities were recruited to hand over the big cheque, but egos were sometimes bruised when it became apparent that the latest lucky winner was keener to meet Tom Champagne than the highly-paid star.
Tom Champagne was born at Reading on January 27 1943, and after his parents separated he was brought up in London by his mother, his Canadian father returning to his homeland.
From the age of 11 he attended Salesian College, a Roman Catholic grammar school in Battersea . After leaving education at the age of 18 he worked in publishing .
He met his wife-to-be Jenny at a youth club in Streatham, and in 1975 the couple moved to Canada. They had two sons, but subsequently divorced.
On returning to London in 1980, Champagne joined Reader’s Digest as a credit controller , becoming Prize Draw Manager in the early 1990s. After his retirement in 2003 he was replaced as Prize Draw Manager by Nicholas Shelley. On his BBC radio breakfast show Terry Wogan quipped: “Surely they mean Nicholas Sherry!”
In 2009 Champagne moved to Hoy, Orkney, where he ran a self-catering business with his partner, Nadia, at Cantick Head Lighthouse.
Tom Champagne, born January 27 1943, died May 2 2013
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