Big-hearted Worcestershire couple celebrate EuroMillions win with coffee
The couple, from Stourport, will use the money to start their fostering journey but say they won't be quitting their day jobs
Last updated 31st Aug 2023
A couple from Stourport-on-Severn are going to use their £100K EuroMillions win to convert their garage into extra bedrooms so they can foster children.
Karleen Reece, 41, and her husband Mark, 42, are going to treat their three children and then start the journey to fostering.
Mrs Reece said: “I’ve always wanted to foster children. Mark and I discussed it many years ago and then we had our own.
"My three kids will be leaving home soon and I have too much love to give. I've always wanted to foster but never had the right circumstances. The win will allow me to do this.”
The win is still sinking in for the teaching assistant who admits she hasn’t always been positive about her husband buying EuroMillions tickets believing that they would never win.
“Every Friday Mark comes home from work with a EuroMillions ticket, and I always moan at him," she said.
"We’ve won a few pounds over the years, but I’ve never seen myself as a lucky person."
But that all changed one Sunday when they checked their ticket for the draw two days earlier.
“I showed it to my daughter," Mrs Reece said.
"I said it was a practical joke but she’s a maths teacher so was easily able to check the amount and check the numbers online. We called out the winning numbers to each other and the amount from the website.
"As the realisation of what this meant hit us we sat there in disbelief; we were winners.”
She said how her husband's jaw dropped as they found out they'd won £100,770.14.
The family, which includes their daughter and two sons, sat in the kitchen and stared at each other before celebrating with coffee.
The couple are currently having an extension built to their house. They wanted to renovate the garage into bedrooms so they could foster children but couldn’t afford it.
They are going to give their three children some money and then start the process to apply for planning permission for a garage conversion to then apply to become foster parents.
The couple hid the winning ticket in Mr Reece's passport. The couple said they will continue in their jobs; Mark works at Wyre Forest Council as a site officer for their recycling vehicles depot and Karleen is a full-time teaching assistant.
Mr Reece is a regular National Lottery player and bought the winning EuroMillions ticket at the Tesco Express in Stourport Road, Kidderminster. He buys a Lucky Dip every week.
They matched five numbers and one star and were one of three UK winners on the draw of 18 August. The winning numbers from that draw were 23, 25, 30, 44, 47 and the Lucky Stars were 9 and 12.