A British couple from Cirencester in Gloucestershire have been presented to the media as the winners of Britain’s biggest yet lottery prize – GBP 56 million ($99 million), revealing that by re-investing part of an earlier lottery win in a random Quickpick selection of numbers they hit the bigtime and a sterling fortune.
Nigel Page (43), a property maintenance man and his partner, estate agent Justine Laycock (41), were handed a cheque for fifty-six million, eight thousand, one hundred and thirteen pounds… and twenty pence after becoming joint winners with an unidentified Spanish player in the Euro Millions lottery.
The couple have three teenage children between them from previous relationships, and immediately said they planned to give up work, with travel high on their priority list, along with a new luxury car, a house and a plan to establish a parachuting club.
“I’ve jumped out of a plane at 12,000 feet but that’s nothing compared to how I’m feeling now,” Page joked, revealing that he discovered he hd become a multi-millionaire overnight when he checked his lottery numbers online on Saturday morning.
In related news, a low income hardware store cleaner living in a poverty-stricken area in Cape Town, South Africa has won a South African record lottery prize of Rands 91 million (about $12 million).
Unfortunately it was not a good experience for the man and his wife, both of whom are deaf, and their two children as they were besieged by large numbers of people begging to share in their good fortune, necessitating their removal to a safer and confidential location by lottery officials.
52-year-old Stanley Philander and his family disappeared from their wooden shack in the back garden of a relative’s home after their win attracted scores of people seeking charity.