Hull Family Celebrate Lotto Jackpot
An ecstatic couple from Withernsea, near Hull, are on cloud nine after scooping a £6.9m Lotto Double Rollover Jackpot. 56 year old Paul Lawton and his wife Debbie, who’s 49, have now joined the ranks of the super-rich after matching six numbers to bank a life-changing £6,911,442. Halifax-born Paul, a long distance haulage driver for Ferndale Transport Co. bought the lucky ticket on Friday. He said: “I was out on the road and stopped to get some snacks so thought I’d get a ticket for the next night’s draw. I didn’t have any particular favourite numbers so chose some at random, paid for the ticket, put it in my wallet and didn’t think any more about it! “Debbie and I were out with friends on Saturday evening, so we missed the live draw. It wasn’t until Sunday morning when I even gave it a second thought. “Debbie had left the house early to go to the care home where she works and I was helping our eldest daughter, Tracey (28), who has cerebral palsy, to get dressed. Once we were both up and ready for the day, I thought I’d check the results on the TV. “‘One..two..oh, I’ve matched three numbers’ I thought. Then four, five and six matched too, so I checked them again, then I double checked the date, and then I think I sat down in the armchair! “I’m generally quite a calm person so didn’t get too excited at this point but instead called Debbie at work and asked her to come home for ten minutes.” Debbie arrived back at the couple’s house in no time, to find her husband clutching the winning ticket. After checking the numbers for herself, the conscientious care worker decided they should speak to Camelot to confirm: “We called the National Lottery Line and after going through some routine checks, they confirmed that we had indeed won £6.9m. Even then, the two of us still managed to stay relatively composed!” Dashing back to work to finish her shift, Debbie, called her other two daughters, Nicola (26) and Deborah (24), and asked them to come round to the house later that afternoon. She commented: “I rang them to say we had some good news and could they pop round with their other halves. They arrived at 3pm sharp and Paul and I simply said ‘We’ve won almost £7m on Lotto’. “They all went pale and looked like they were going to pass out, then started shaking and shrieking with excitement. “Tracey doesn’t speak, but she just looked at us all like we had lost our minds – it was priceless! At that point we thought it was time to celebrate, so we cracked open the beers and had a little party, just the family together. It was a very special evening.” Paul is clear on how his vast wealth will be spent: “It’s very, very simple – the money will be spent making my family’s lives safe and secure. We live in a house that has been modified with Tracey’s needs in mind but this win means that we can now search for a lovely big bungalow that can be fitted out properly. “It will enrich her life so much and that’s the most important thing on the agenda. Then we can look after Nicola and her husband and our wonderful three grandchildren, along with Deborah and her partner, who are expecting their first baby later this year.” Paul does plan to splash out on one particular special occasion: “Debbie will celebrate her fiftieth birthday this October. We’d already arranged to take the family to Las Vegas, but now, well Vegas isn’t going to know what’s hit it! “It will simply be the most wonderful way to round off the year, knowing we can enjoy an incredible holiday and not have to worry about the money. We’re very normal people and will remain so, but it makes me feel very happy inside to know that those I love the most will be helped by this incredible stroke of good fortune. “We couldn’t be more delighted. It just goes to show that extraordinary things can happen to ordinary families like us.” The winning ticket was bought from McColl’s on Queen Street in Withernsea. The winning six numbers were 7, 20, 23, 29, 40 and 46.