The couple revealed as winners of the £61 million jackpot thought they had collected just £2.60
A HAPPY couple thought they had won just £2.60 but soon discovered they had won the EuroMillions jackpot of £61million.
Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne, Lancashire, took home the life-changing part of the draw on Tuesday, January 30, 2024.
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The couple were enjoying a holiday in Fuerteventura, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, when they discovered the big win.
Richard revealed that they initially thought they had won £2.60, but then received another email asking the pair to check their account.
“I thought it was strange and there was a glitch in the system to receive a duplicate email, but I logged back into my National Lottery account to check,” he explained.
“We were completely stunned, it said we had won over £61 million,” said the winner.
Richard continued: 'We just couldn't make sense of it. My first thought was that it was a scam, otherwise there was something wrong with it.”
He said poor phone signal meant the couple could not confirm the news with the National Lottery and he turned to his family for help.
Our lives will be so different. We have worked hard all our lives and are now really looking forward to making life a little easier.”
Richard Nuttall
“My youngest came back soon and we asked her to log into our National Lottery account from the UK and check again,” Richard explains.
“She entered my details and kept repeating, 'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!!' It must be real, this was the official National Lottery website that we were all looking at.”
When Richard and Debbie finally got to the National Lottery, the worker told them: “So I have to get this right… I can confirm that you are the winners of the £61,708,321 EuroMillions jackpot prize.”
“By this time Debs and I are going crazy, jumping up and down in our car seats, punching the air, banging on the dashboard, the car must have been rocking,” Richard said.
The winning numbers were 05, 10, 19, 27, 30 and the two Lucky Stars were 05 and 06.
Andy Carter, senior winners advisor at the National Lottery, said: “This is absolutely incredible news and we are pleased to have received a claim.
“This is the first UK EuroMillions jackpot win of 2024, following an incredible 2023 that saw six UK EuroMillions jackpots won, including a £111.7 million win by an anonymous ticket holder in June.
“Our focus now is on supporting this last lucky ticket holder through the process and helping him enjoy his truly life-changing win.”
THE MONEY SPLATTERED
The happy couple are now planning to buy a new family home and a luxury holiday in Portugal.
Richard has already driven home a brand new BMW X5.
And Debbie has already left her job for her job in civil engineering, where she works as a bidding and estimating support assistant.
Meanwhile, Richard, who runs his own accountancy firm, has now informed the company that he will no longer be working after the end of this tax year.
Now that he has more free time, Richard plans to hit the golf course more often, and even wants a “Golf Swing Room” in their new pad.
TOP 5 BIGGEST LOTTERY WINNINGS IN THE WORLD
- £1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13, 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains the largest lottery prize in history
- £1.267 billion (Mega Million) winner from South Carolina took the time to register to claim his prize in March 2019, not long before the April deadline
- £633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a Wisconsin winner
- £625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk from Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
- £575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky few winners hit the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
Debbie, on the other hand, can now enjoy her dream garden and the extra space for a greenhouse.
The couple revealed they were planning to downsize just over a month ago.
“Now we are expanding massively, with plenty of land for Debbie and the dog to enjoy,” said Richard.
“Our lives will be so different. We have worked hard all our lives and we are now really looking forward to making life a little easier.”
Richard had been playing EuroMillions for eight years and bought one Lucky Dip line every Tuesday and Friday.
The couple has now taken 29th place on the National Lottery Rich List.
And they are the 39th British winner to land a prize of £50 million or more on EuroMillions.
HELPING OTHERS
The pair also plan to donate a large portion of their profits to charity.
They are ambassadors for BK'S HEROES, founded in memory of their cousin (Ben King) after he died at the age of 27 from a rare condition, tubular interstitial nephritis and uveitis.
The charity which aims to raise awareness of brain cancer and kidney disease and raise money for research.
Richard said: “This charity means so much to our family and we are all involved.”
“Ben was a huge inspiration to all of us. He was incredibly brave and positive during his treatment and it was his wish that this charity would be set up to do what it can to help lives in the future.”
HOW TO PLAY
Contestants need five main numbers plus two Lucky Stars to win the EuroMillions jackpot.
However, there are still big prizes up for grabs if you match five main numbers and one Lucky Star.
Even without Lucky Stars, if you still draw five main numbers, you can win a significant amount of money.
The guaranteed prize in the UK Millionaire Maker, which you automatically get access to when you buy a EuroMillions ticket, is £1 million.
To play you choose five numbers from 1 – 50 and two Lucky Stars from 1 – 12, or you can choose randomly selected numbers.
You can choose to play on Tuesday or Friday, or both, and the number of weeks you want to play.
For €2.50 you can play with up to seven number lines and buy up to 10 pay slips at the same time.
By playing any National Lottery game, including EuroMillions, players generate £30 million every week for National Lottery-funded projects.
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