Life changing

Bad start to New Year turned round for Folkestone couple

Just a fortnight after being made redundant a Folkestone man is celebrating becoming a millionaire. The New Year had started badly for Alan Tyrie losing his job, even though he had managed to land another contract role. He is now celebrating being able to take a break from being an industrial welder and instead work on his golf handicap.

Alan has wife Marjorie to thank for their lucky win, she always ensures their lucky Lotto numbers are in the draw, although it wasn’t their numbers that made them millionaires.

Marjorie said, "Every Saturday afternoon, between coming home from bingo and heading off to work at the local club, I have a cup of tea and play Lotto for the week online on my iPad. It's always two lines of the same numbers – but it's not always a £1 million win!"

Having watched the draw and seen only one of her numbers appear Marjorie wasn't expecting to receive an email from The National Lottery the following day.

She said, "I was bemused because I knew we'd only matched one number in the draw so clicked on it and followed the prompts to log in without really thinking about it. Let me tell you, when I saw all those zeros staring back at me, having matched the Lotto Millionaire Raffle code, I soon started to think about it!"

Shaking like a leaf

At home alone, and worried it was a scam, the mum of two logged out of her account and then back in again, fully expecting the £1Million to have disappeared. "It was like a candid camera moment with me logging in and out, checking on my phone and finally, shaking like a leaf, calling The National Lottery to see if the win really was right," recalls Marjorie.

Alan returned from his round of golf to find his wife on the phone to their eldest son discussing her thoughts about moving house. Confused at how they could afford to move, he was left utterly speechless when Marjorie announced they had just won £1Million.

The couple are now planning what is turning out to be a much better 2016 than they first thought. Marjorie said, "We have always worked hard for everything we have – whether buying our own home or putting our son though university – so we really know the value of hard work. Even after Alan was made redundant within a week he had found another contracting job which he actually started the morning after we discovered the win. Welding is a physically demanding job so it’ll be nice for him to hang up his welders mask and take it a bit easier for a while."

The win is life changing for the couple and their family. "We are going to take our time planning our future. It’s going to be a really exciting time and we want to make sure that we do all the things we always dreamt of and still have plenty left over to help our two boys and give us a good retirement," said Marjorie.

"This year may have started a little rocky but my gosh, it soon picked up!"

The National Lottery has been changing the lives of winners and supporting good causes across the UK since 1994. In that time, there have been more than 7,000 new millionaires created and by playing The National Lottery you raise over £4 million for Good Causes every dayΔ.

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