A couple have been enjoying a double celebration after winning £1,000,000 on The National Lottery just seven days before they tied the knot.
Housewife Christine Jane (nee Buckton) 50, and now husband delivery driver Nick, 55, matched five main numbers and the Bonus Ball in the Lotto draw on Saturday 15 October to win £1,000,000 and then hit the jackpot again a week later when they became husband and wife.
Christine explained: “We hadn’t played The National Lottery in a fair few months before our win but, for some reason one of Nick’s work colleagues told him that we should buy a Lotto ticket that weekend.
"We got ourselves a Lucky Dip and here we are with a £1,000,000 win - a very generous wedding gift of sorts!”
Christine, who has four grown children, was so stunned when she realised she and husband Nick, who also has four grown children, were millionaires that she literally fell off the bed.
Christine said, “It was the Sunday morning – the day after the Lotto draw – that I checked the winning numbers on my phone. I knew we had won something but didn’t register what so I woke my stepson up to check.”
Despite Christine’s stepson also telling her that she had won, she decided to go and get the ticket checked at her local shop.
“I took the ticket to the local Spa to get them to run it through the National Lottery terminal and when the man behind the counter said, ‘Oh my God, you’ve won the lottery!’
"I immediately said, ‘can I have my winnings now?’ He replied, ‘No, it’s too much for us to pay out, it’s £100,000! You’ll have to phone Camelot!’”
Christine, very much still in an excited daze, returned home and promptly phoned the National Lottery Line where the words Christine will never forget, ‘you’ve won £1,000,000’ were said, at which point Christine fell off the bed.
The news spread fast and by the time an unsuspecting Nick arrived home there was a gaggle of relatives there to greet him.
Christine said, “We were all waiting for Nick to get home to tell him, rather than phoning him with this kind of news whilst he was driving! When he came in the door one of our daughters said, ‘Dad, what would you do with £1,000,000?’ Nick obviously didn’t register the excitement and giggling because, rather than asking why he just said, ‘I don’t know?’. His face was a picture of confusion, shock and happiness as he was told, ‘well, you’re just won £1,000,000!’”
Then, just a week later the delighted couple tied the knot at a ceremony in front of friends and family, Christine said she found it hard not to tell their guests the good news.
“We knew, even if not all of them did, that we would soon be changing their lives for the better too,” she said.
The couple are now making plans on how to spend their money, Christine said she wants to spend some of it on a dolphin spotting trip off the coast of St Ives while much of it will be spent on buying a home for the happy couple.
