Builder eyes first home after Scratchcard win

It was an act of kindness, getting a workmate a bottle of water from the shop, that led to Kevin Campbell (27) using his change to buy the winning card. He banked the top prize on the £250,000 Purple Limited Edition Scratchcard from National Lottery GameStore.

Kevin explains his shock at winning, “I quickly nipped to the local shop in Denny just before work to get a bottle of water for a lad I was on a job with and decided to buy a Scratchcard with my spare change.

“I scratched it when I got back in the car and I couldn’t believe it – I think I actually just kept scratching away even though there was nothing left because I thought it was a mistake! I kept saying over and over ‘Is it real? Is this real?’ and I had so many butterflies in my stomach.”

Desperate attempts to share his excitement with his mum and girlfriend led to about 20 missed calls as neither picked up.

“I had to say it out loud and tell someone, so I phoned my boss because I knew I was going to have to explain to him why I was on cloud nine all day at work anyway. From the moment I said those words ‘I’ve just won a quarter of a million pounds’, it all started to become real.

“All of my friends, family and workmates know I tend to have a wee laugh about things from time to time so it took some time convincing them. We had a bit of banter on the job that day with the lad I was working with, jokingly taking credit that it was all due to his bottle of water.”

Kevin said that “everyone has been so nice” in the local community and it seems that his win has sparked a scramble for the Scratchcard. “I think people are just genuinely happy to see someone they know win. It’s quite funny because the shopkeeper said that locals have been flocking to buy my winning Scratchcard, so much so that he’s completely sold out of it now!”

Kevin is going to take some time before spending his windfall and is definitely going to follow the advice of his mum and girlfriend, Sarah McDougall (29), to “be sensible and make it last”.

“This has given me such a good start to my life, and it’s an amount of money that I never thought I’d have. I will definitely be buying my first house in my hometown of Denny. I think I’ll also treat my girlfriend and the lads to a holiday to officially celebrate.”