£33million pound lottery winners set to help flood victims in their area

David and Carol Martin from Hawick say it was a 'total shock'.

Published 13th Jan 2016

A couple from the Scottish Borders have been revealed as one half of the jackpot winners from the record breaking £66 million draw last Saturday.

David and Carol Martin from Hawick were one of two ticket holders with the numbers 26, 27, 46, 47, 52 and 58, winning a total of £33,035,323.

The pair plan to spend the money on a 'nice pair of shoes' for Mr Martin, a first class ticket home for their daughter in Australia and taking early retirement.

But they also confirmed to Sky News that they'll spend some of their winnings on helping flood victims in their area.

David said : “It’s everyone’s dream to win the lottery. We don’t have all the answers yet but we’d like to help our closest friends and family and there are charities which are important to us too. Parts of our community have also been hit by flooding and we know lots of people who have struggled in recent times so there’s a lot for us to work out but it’s a nice problem to have.”

Speaking at a news conference in Edinburgh the couple called it a ‘total shock’ and said they’d only checked the ticket once a friend had urged them to.

David explained “My mate Keith had popped over for a chat on Sunday morning when he mentioned that there had been two Lotto winners in the big Rollover the night before.

"I hadn’t checked my ticket so I removed it from the mantelpiece and thought I’d take a quick look but for some reason we couldn’t find the results in the paper.

"After Keith had left, Carol and I were tucking into bacon and black pudding rolls when we decided to check the ticket against the results on her phone. As Carol called out the numbers, I realised that the first line matched up one by one. We must have checked it another ten times or more!"

The record jackpot amount follows 14 consecutive rollovers.