Gareth, who is as a self-employed builder, had made a spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a Lucky Dip ticket after rain disrupted his work, and that spontaneous act has changed his life – and that of his family – forever.

Gareth and Catherine, who live in Mansfield, are now the seventh biggest lottery winners in the country, and the numbers that put them in that position were 02, 10, 22, 27 and 28, as well as the Lucky Stars 06 and 08.

Gareth checked his entry on television the morning after the draw had taken place, and it didn’t take him long to realise that his numbers had landed a big win, so he immediately went to share the good news with his wife.

“He came into the bedroom as white as a sheet, the ticket was shaking in his hand and I knew that something wasn’t right,” Catherine said. “When he tried to explain that he thought we’d won, I thought he was pulling my leg. I was in the middle of straightening my hair and told him I wasn’t very happy with being teased!”

Catherine continued: “He was so convincing that I went to check myself. Even though it was on TV I still didn’t believe that we had all the numbers, so I looked online which showed me the same set of numbers.”

Gareth and Catherine have two sons and they had a weekend full of plans in place when they discovered their massive win, so the couple decided to confirm the win with the lottery operator and continue with their weekend as normal without telling anyone about the EuroMillions jackpot.

“All of this has happened at a crazy fast speed and it is hard to keep up!” Gareth said. “We have our dream home which we built from scratch and it is impossible to think about what we are going to do next yet. We have only told a few people so far so it will be exciting to sit down together as a family and work out plans for the future.”

Gareth has already decided to start watching Manchester United play from a private box, and he also intends to buy himself a Range Rover Sport. Other plans include taking a family trip to Disney World in Florida.

There was one winning ticket.

I’ll let you know where (and in what country) that winning ticket was bought as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, congratulations to the winner.

Judy and Frank Whitmore were one of the 25 ticket-holders who each banked £1 million on the amazing night. The draw was the finale of Millionaires Month, which saw the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Raffle create 50 millionaires in the UK between 25 November and Christmas.

Judy only bought the ticket because the draw was creating so many winners, and discovered the win on Christmas Eve. She said, “I got the laptop out and hadn’t won with my numbers so then looked through the 25 raffle numbers. I checked it six times and my husband and I kept reading them out to one another. In the end we decided we had better call my son to check.”

Judy’s son, who lives down the road, appeared in an instant, and eventually confirmed: “Yes Mother you have won it”.

“We screamed a bit,” Judy said, “and then my son had to call” to confirm the win.

Rather than rushing out for last-minute Christmas shopping, the couple decided it was best to go for a walk. “We just wandered down the river with great big smiles on our faces and occasionally laughing,” she said.

Judy was worried about where to keep the ticket now that it was worth £1 million. “My tickets are usually just in my purse or on the window sill,” she said. After a few ideas my husband suggested we put it in a special teapot we have on the kitchen shelf, it was his great-great-grandmother’s. We were sure it would be safe there.”

The couple didn’t reveal the win to their two other children until they visited on Christmas Day. After the initial shock, both were over the moon for the couple.

Felice anno nuovo

Bonne annee

Ein gutes neues Jahr

Xin nian yu kuai

To you all..a most happy, healthy and wealthy New Year.

It’s all about a couple from Yeadon, near Leeds. They won more than a million pounds (actually £1,963,927) about a month ago, but I’m just finding out about them now.

Thanks Ian.

Their names are Steve and Gwen Poole and according to a press release, they didn’t find out they had won until a day after the draw, when one of their sons showed them the ticket, which he had bought for them.

Steve revealed, “I usually forget to put the lines on so I send one of my sons down to the shop with our Fast Pay card.” 

The couple’s son Tom, along with brother Dave, watched the draw together. When Tom commented that the numbers looked familiar, Dave laughed at him. Tom had the last laugh, though, as Dave went away on holiday on Sunday and so was unaware when the news broke that his father is a millionaire.

Steve said, “Tom came in on Sunday night, told Gwen and I to sit down and then passed us the ticket. We looked at it and then the results he had put on the TV. The amount was under the numbers, we were all a bit numb to be honest.”

Gwen took charge of the ticket and placed it in a picture frame for safekeeping.

Steve, who was both a driving instructor and recovery vehicle controller, said he’ll cut back on work.

Gwen, who is a dental nurse, is also looking to go part time.

I hope they’ve done all that. Ian, if you’re reading this and can find out, let me know.

Treats for their four sons and three grandchildren are also in the plans. The couple hope to travel across Canada to visit their son, who lives there.

Steve, a keen paraglider who often travels to Turkey to indulge his passion, is planning a big treat to himself of a powered paraglider. He said, “I have not been able to do it a lot recently as I have been so busy with work. Now I intend to spend more time in my paraglider and I am going to treat myself to one with a motor so I don’t need to trek up the hill with my kit first.“

The last draw had no winners so the jackpot rises to 42 million euros, or 36 million U.K. pounds, or $56 million U.S. dollars.

The latest winning numbers are 28,31,48,56,72,78. The Jolly number is 65. The Superstar number is 34.

For those of you who have never played, here is how:

There are several ways to play the game  but the simplest way is to select 6 numbers from the range 1 to 90 for each entry that you want to make.

When the draw takes place at 8pm on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, six main numbers and one ‘Jolly’ number will be selected at random by the SuperEnalotto machine.

The Jolly number is very similar to the Bonus Ball that is drawn in the UK Lotto game and also to the Lucky Star numbers that are drawn in the EuroMillions game, and the purpose of the Jolly number is to help players win a bigger consolation prize if the jackpot eludes them.

If no player wins the jackpot then it is rolled over to the jackpot fund for the next SuperEnalotto draw. As mentioned previously, the slim odds of winning the top prize (due to the fact that there are 90 balls in play) mean that rollovers occur regularly.

Get it?

I’ve played the game.

Below, the top five jackpots (in US dollars) in the world, and the dates of the next drawings:

1. $100 million, Mega Millions, next draw, Dec. 9

2. $67 million, Powerball, Dec. 10

3. $43 million, Florida Lotto, Dec. 10

4. 26 million euros (or about $34.8 million in U.S. dollars), Euro Millions, Dec. 9

5. $30 million, Lotto Texas, Dec. 10

Good luck everyone.

At least it was for the McIntyre family, who live in the small farming an and fishing community in Ballyglass, Belmullet, County Mayo, Ireland.

They are the winners of this past Saturday’s Irish lottery draw.

Their prize? €11,033,593…which computes to more than $15 million U.S.D.

They hit all six drawn numbers.

Is 13 a lucky number for them? I guess so, as this was the thirteenth time a rollover had happened on the Irish Lottery.