Dream wedding planned

Anyone who wins a £8,471,383 lottery jackpot knows their life will change forever. And that’s just what has happened to Karen Child, who works at the very Tesco where she bought her ticket for the 3 February 2007 rollover Draw. Having done her shopping Karen bought a Lucky Dip ticket as she’s done since the lottery began. Later that evening she was watching TV with fiancé Wayne when he decided to check the lottery numbers for his works bonus ball game. He didn’t win, but as Karen checked her numbers and realised she’d got all six, she just did not know what to do! So she called the telephone number on the back of the ticket and it was confirmed as being the winning ticket with the numbers 13, 17, 39, 46,47, 49.

Karen and Wayne had already made wedding plans after he’d romantically proposed to her up the Eiffel Tower in Paris last year, but now the wedding will be the one of her dreams. Karen is a Manchester United fan and hopes that with the win she will finally get to see her team play live. A matching red Mini Cooper car and a new house, but still in Chesterfield are also on the shopping list.

And a win that’s guaranteed to bloom, of £1,173,269 was won on Saturday 27 January by a couple who are florists, from Darlington. Paul and Sue Watson have built up the Farmer’s Market floristry and greengrocers in Cockerton for the last eight years, so they are not planning to give up work. But, with adult sons, there are a few purchases in the pipeline like paying off their mortgage, new cars all round and a family holiday to St Petersburg in Florida.

The couple have played the National Lottery since it started in 1994, and always check the numbers on Teletext. This week was different, and as Paul checked off all six numbers he just could not believe it. So he checked, and re-checked and then told his family. The lucky numbers were 4,15,21,23,24, 38 and their ticket was bought at Somerfield in Cockerton.

- 20/2/07