Dream home a reality for £5M Lotto winners

Tommy, 68, and Linda Parker became multi-millionaires after matching five numbers and the bonus ball and can now build the perfect home to accommodate Linda who suffers from arthritis.

Due to her illness, Linda, 67, finds getting around unaided difficult. Tommy had always dreamt of building her the perfect home, never thinking that that dream home would one day become a reality. He said, “My son-in-law, who is a builder, always said that when we win the lottery he will build us a place. I can’t believe that this is real and we can actually do it!”

Father of two Tommy has always played the lottery and has bought his ticket from the same shop, at roughly the same time, for the last 16 years. His numbers were a combination of family birthdays, with the exception of the number 44 which he chose as it ‘seemed to come up’ and he thought it might be a winner one day.

Tommy said, “Since I retired, I always go and buy a paper at 9.30am and also buy my ticket. I always have the same routine – I take it home and put it under the biscuit barrel to keep safe. It’s kept up high on a shelf in the kitchen so the wife can’t reach it!

“I knew it was a must-be-won draw on Wednesday. We had gone to bed and I checked the winning numbers on the TV. I knew straight away we had five and woke the wife to tell her I thought we’d won some money on the lottery. I checked again and realised we also had the bonus ball too and the jackpot had rolled down to everyone who had these numbers. This meant we had won over £5million! That’s the quickest I’ve ever seen my wife get out of bed, EVER!”

The following morning, Tommy took his ticket to the newsagent and was told he needed to call Camelot. He said, “I still couldn’t believe it and kept checking the numbers to make sure they hadn’t changed. When the National Lottery Line opened, the woman I spoke to on the phone was so excited for me when she realised I was one of the lucky five from the draw the night before who’d shared the massive jackpot!”

With his head still spinning at the thought of winning and shaking all over, Tommy contacted his two daughters to share the fantastic news. Younger daughter Diane said ‘it just doesn’t happen to people like us’ and eldest daughter Tracey was getting her nails done when she got the call and couldn’t sit still long enough to get them finished.

Pressing on with their dream home is the priority for the lucky couple, who are originally from Northumberland, as well as looking after their children and their grandchild. Tommy and Linda also hope to do a spot of travelling and are keeping an eye out for a suitable cruise. They’ve not thought about anything else to spend their money on yet – but one thing is for sure – they are just both looking forward to a great retirement.

25th October 2017