When Mark Francis got the call to say he had won the lottery, he celebrated....by "blowing my nose". That was because he was laid up in bed with Covid and self isolating, so had to phone his fiance Helen Taylor to tell her they had scooped £1 million on the National Lottery.
Helen, who works as a carer for Swansea council, was with a patient when she could see that Mark had tried to phone her several times, but had no idea the good news he was trying to tell her.
"I was just about to shower a lady, and told him I couldn't speak," she remembers. "But he was saying no,no, no, I need to tell you we have won the lottery."
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Delivery driver Mark, from Swansea, had bought a ticket with the winning UK Millionaire Maker code on January 4, 2022, and found out he won while trying to cheer himself up because he felt ill.
"I was at home watching daytime TV when in between the coughing and spluttering from my bout of Covid" laughs the 50-year-old. "I was idly checking my results on the National Lottery app. When it flashed up I was a winner I called the line definitely not expecting to end it as a millionaire. It’s still a blur to this day!
“It’s been an amazing 18 months for us, winning the lottery is truly life changing. We’ve been able to buy a home, follow Wales to all Six Nations games and upgrade our cars. As cars, and driving, are my ‘thing’ this is more meaningful than it sounds! Driving my Audi Q3 RS brings me so much joy, every time I get in that car, it feels like I’m winning all over again!”
The couple, who haven't given up their jobs since winning, had often talked about what they would do if they ever won the lottery, and they both the best is that the money has given them security. They bought a house, a caravan on the Gower where all the family, including their five grandchildren aged between two and 15, can spend time together and they have been busy planning for their wedding in September.
But it hasn't all been plain sailing. During a routine check up, Helen was diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily it had been caught early, she went through treatment and has just celebrated her first year being cancer free.
"After the high of winning, it was a massive bump," she says. "It was a lot to take in but we all got through it together and now we can look forward and plan our wedding and celebration with all the family.
“After the win, my health scare definitely put everything into perspective but I was lucky once again, and now firmly on the mend we can really start to enjoy the win. We’ve been busy planning our wedding, and I feel blessed that I can choose things I want rather than what the budget dictates, having said that I’m not going wild, I’m still keeping a keen eye on the pennies."
And they are determined to share the good luck with their family.
Mark says: “Sharing the luck is important to us so we recently bought a caravan on The Gower which means that friends and family can enjoy short breaks and family holidays too. It’s already proving so popular with my mother and our grandchildren I’m not sure how much time we will actually get to spend there.
"By far the best about winning is the security it has given us. We were both working long hours plus overtime and now, although we both continue to work we can do it for the job satisfaction. Plus we’ve been able to help out family in a way we could have only dreamt of before."
And the worst bit about winning? Mark finds it hard to think of a downside.
"The ups are so great but I would say the responsibility that comes with it," he says. "We need to make sure this money makes a difference to our lives and with luck, our kids and grandkids too so we do feel some pressure to make wise decisions with it. Thankfully we’ve had good advice from the experts and also from the other Welsh lottery winners we’ve met in the last 12 months or so."
They have been lucky enough to meet up regularly with some of the other winners from Wales who all tend to help each other through shared experience.
Recently, a group were at the Celtic Manor to mark Wales' luckiest places and to celebrate the 58 people in Wales who have been made millionaires over the past three years. More details of that here. Since The National Lottery launched in 1994 there have been a 389 millionaires made in Wales.
For now Mark and Helen are looking forward to the future.
Mark, who is a keen rugby fan, says: "Our hopes for the future are that we both stay in good health so we can continue to enjoy the amazing new lottery lifestyle we have been lucky enough to win, and that we can continue to share this good fortune with our family.
"Beyond that, we have our wedding to look forward to later in the year, plenty more of those little trips to events and places we’ve always wanted to visit and further ahead, hopefully a trip to Australia for the 2025 British and Irish Lions Tour. "
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