Meet the UK's biggest National Lottery millionaires!
A Gloucestershire couple are celebrating after shooting straight into first place in the UK National Lottery (UK Lottery) Rich List, with an amazing £56,008,113.20 jackpot prize. Nigel Page and his partner Justine Laycock banked the biggest UK national lottery (UK Lottery) win after scooping half the jackpot in the EuroMillions draw on Friday 12th February.
Nigel, a self-confessed sky-diving fanatic, and Justine are now trying to keep their feet firmly on the ground since learning of their enormous windfall at the weekend. Nigel recently started playing online and had already won £55 earlier that week in the UK National Lottery Wednesday's draw.
Nigel recalls: "I'd already checked my UK National Lottery Account and had seen I'd won £55 on Lotto when I decided to buy two Lucky Dips for the big EuroMillions jackpot on Friday. I didn't think about it again until Saturday morning when I was watching the news with my daughter and saw that there was one UK winner who shared the jackpot with a ticket in Spain. I remember even joking it might be me! I logged on to my UK National Lottery Account and saw the Lotto win for £55 in my Account and just below it was the £56 million EuroMillions prize. I started shaking and couldn't speak. I just kept looking at it on in the screen in front of me but I couldn't say a word!"
Nigel then went to wake up Justine who was still asleep. Justine says: "I knew something was up as Nigel never wakes me up on a Saturday morning and he looked so worried. All he said was 'I need you urgently. I need to show you something'. I thought something awful had happened but he took me to the computer and there it was on the screen. His hands were shaking so much, he couldn't pick up the phone so I called the UK National Lottery help line and they confirmed it was true. We were the £56 million winners!"
The couple have been together for eight years and have three children from previous relationships - Nigel's daughter, Ella and Justine's son and daughter, Jacob and Georgia. Both Nigel and Justine work in the property field - Nigel runs a property maintenance business and Justine works for a local estate agency in Cirencester. They both plan to give up work and are already making plans for their win.
Nigel has been a sky diving fan for nine years and is a member of his local sky diving club in South Cerney. Nigel says: "I've jumped out of a plane at 12,000 feet but that's nothing compared to how I'm feeling now! I've been a sky diving fan for many years and I would love to set up my own indoor sky-diving centre. There are only three in the country and I plan to use some of the win to set up the first one in the South West."
The couple plan to buy a new house but want to stay in the Cirencester area and hope to use their win to travel. Justine says: "It would be lovely to get a five or six bedroom house with a pool and lots of space but we really enjoy the area we live in now so we won't move far. We'd also like to buy somewhere abroad where we can go on holiday but it'll have to be in the school holidays!"
Sturt Family Bank £26 Million EuroMillions Jackpot
The Sturt Family from Dorking are celebrating after leaping into fourth place in the UK National Lottery Rich List (UK Lottery). The four members of the family syndicate won half of the EuroMillions jackpot in the draw on Friday 15th January, to bank a stunning £26,151,124.20.
Father George, 75, and his three children Colin, Gary and Teresa make up the syndicate, but with a further eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren the win will transform the entire family's life.
George, who buys the family's UK National Lottery ticket every week, first discovered the win on Saturday morning. He said: "I woke up and had a bit of a funny feeling - I always check the ticket at the shop, but decided to bring up the results on Teletext. I could see I had all of the numbers and knew it must be quite big, but wasn't sure how much so I called my daughter to come up to the house."
Teresa checked the ticket and was soon sat in a state of shock at the size of the win. She said: "When you dream of winning you think you'd scream but you just stare at each other and are completely gob smacked - initially you don't want to believe it in case it isn't true." George called his sons, Colin and Gary, who after a little persuasion that it wasn't all a wind up joined their father and sister.
George plans to support a number of local charities with his win, who have helped the family across the years, but his biggest pleasure will come from seeing his family secure. He said: "It is for the kids really. They have had tough times and to know that the whole family will benefit from the win is very satisfying. It will make such a difference and will help in so many ways."
EuroMillions win - £45,570,835
Les Scadding and his wife Samantha Peachey-Scadding, from Caerleon in South Wales, have jumped into joint first place in The National Lottery Rich List (UK Lottery), after winning a staggering £45,570,835.50. They banked half of the jackpot in the EuroMillions draw on Friday 6th November 2009.
Les and Samantha quietly celebrated with a Sunday lunch in their favourite restaurant, after learning of the win on Saturday evening. Les went to Tesco on Spytty Road in Newport, where he bought his Lucky Dip ticket for the UK Mational Lottery Saturday evening draw, and to buy some groceries on Saturday evening, and decided to check his EuroMillions ticket on the way out. He recalled, "When I asked the people behind the counter to check the numbers, the machine just printed out a pink slip, telling me to contact Camelot. I thought I might have won around £50,000, and I rushed home to tell Samantha."
Les got back to the house, where Samantha was doing some work at her computer. She immediately went online to check their numbers, where it was revealed that two winners in the UK had shared over £90 million.
Les said: "It was a very funny couple of minutes. We just looked at each other while it sunk in, before we got on the phone to Camelot."
However, the couple took the staggering news in their stride, and on Sunday went for lunch at their favourite restaurant, The Priory, in Caerleon, with Samantha's mother. Les said: "We always go to The Priory, as I know the owner really well, so we wouldn't have gone anywhere different. We ordered a couple of bottles of Champagne and just had a quiet chat about it all, and tried to let it all sink in."
Les says his first purchase will probably be replacing his Citroen C5 with a Range Rover Sport. The couple also plan to move to a bigger house, but say they will probably stay in South Wales, as well as possibly buying a holiday home.
Les and Samantha are now joint first in The National Lottery Rich List ahead of two other EuroMillions winners; Glasgow postal worker Angela Kelly who won £35.4m on 10th August 2007 and Brian and Joan Caswell from Bolton who won £24.9million in June
Magnificent Seven syndicate - £45,570,835
A group of office workers were celebrating today after winning a share of the UK's biggest-ever lottery prize. The seven-strong syndicate, all based in Merseyside, scooped £45,570,835.50 on Friday 6th November 2009 EuroMillions draw, which had a whopping total jackpot of £90 million.
The winners, who all work through Manpower for Hewlett Packard, carrying out internal IT work at BT, only formed their syndicate - called The Magnificent Seven - four months ago. The syndicate includes John Walsh (57), James Bennett (28), Sean Connor (32), Alex Parry (19), Emma Cartwright (23), Ceri Scullion (35) and Donna Rhodes (39) who have each banked £6.5million.
Syndicate leader John Walsh said: "I couldn't sleep on Sunday morning so ended up checking the numbers on Teletext at 3am. I couldn't believe it when all our numbers came up. I had to wake up my wife and son and daughter so they could double check I wasn't dreaming. I had left the ticket in my drawer at work, so I went in on Sunday morning to make sure it was still there and then called the rest of the syndicate to tell them the good news. I didn't quite get the response I expected because with the economy in the state it is in, everyone has been worried about jobs, so they all thought I was calling to tell them they had been made redundant. Thankfully I got to tell them some good news instead!"
The news was perfect timing for John as his wife Margaret was made redundant from her job with Woolworths in January this year. He added: "It wasn't a great start to the year but it's certainly looking up for 2010. We are now looking forward to a fabulous Christmas, hopefully starting with a family trip to New York, which is one of our favourite places, for a spot of Christmas shopping."
Alex Parry, who is the youngest winner in the syndicate, only left sixth form at Wallasey School, in Wirral, just over a year ago. She said: "I have a big family with a mum, a step dad, two sisters, a brother, a step brother and step sister so I will be making sure they all have a nice Christmas."
James Bennett, is married and has two sons, aged six months and six. He said: "I honestly can't remember how I felt when I heard the news that we'd won. It is a complete blank. I have never owned a house and always rented so our first priority is to buy our own place. We've already been searching on the internet and it is the most amazing feeling to be able to click the button which says "no maximum price". It is hard to believe that these dream homes we are looking at are now in our price range. The best thing is knowing I can now support my children for the rest of their lives; there is simply no better feeling than that."
Donna Rhodes has lived in Liverpool for ten years and lives with her partner David, and their two teenage children. She said: "I didn't have any holidays left and was due to work all over Christmas so the best news is I won't have to anymore and instead I can hand in my notice! My mother Gladys is in her 70s and is the sole carer for my brother who suffers from MS, so we are hoping to buy a big house so they can come to live with us and we can help look after him as well. We'd also love a little holiday home in Malta.