Tuesday November 10 2009 by Emily Garnham for express.co.ukTHERE'S only so much champagne a person can drink, so just how do you spend £45.5million?
That is the question
Les Scadding, 53, and wife Samantha Peachey-Scadding, 38, have been asking themselves since winning half of the Euromillions lottery jackpot on Friday night.
The couple from Caerleon in South Wales, who
today went public with their good fortune, became the country's biggest ever lottery winners.
And they vowed to spend their mega fortune on a bigger house and a holiday home, as well as trips to Barbados.
At a press conference today Mr Scadding said: “When I asked the people behind the counter to check the numbers the machine just printed out a pink slip telling me to contact Camelot.
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The couple hold their life-changing cheque
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“I thought I might have won around £50,000 and I rushed home to tell Samantha.”
EXPRESS PHOTO GALLERY: BRITISH LOTTERY WINNERS CELEBRATE JACKPOT
After frantic double checking online, he said: “It was a very funny couple of minutes. We just looked at each other while it sunk in before we got on the phone to Camelot.”
In an added twist, the pair came from the so called 'Golden Gwent Triangle' which has now churned out seven lottery multi-millionaires in just three years.
Taking the news in their stride, the couple decided to celebrate over Sunday lunch with Mrs Peachey-Scadding’s mother in their favourite restaurant, The Priory in Caerleon.
Mr Scadding said: “We always go to The Priory, as I know the owner really well, so we wouldn’t have gone anywhere different.
“We ordered a couple of bottles of champagne and just had a quiet chat about it all, and tried to let it all sink in.”
Mr Scadding, who has three grown-up children from his first marriage, is a qualified mechanic but has worked for many years as a driver. He is currently out of work, and had been looking for temporary driving contracts.
His wife runs her own marketing company from home.
She said: “There is quite a lot of pressure involved in running your own business, and I’ve been working 12-hour days recently. This win means I can take my foot off the pedal and relax a bit.”
Mr Scadding said his first purchase would probably be to replace his Citroen C5 with a Range Rover Sport.
And over in Merseyside a group of office workers dubbed the “Magnificent Seven” were also celebrating today after winning a share of the UK’s biggest ever lottery prize.
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The Euromillions syndicate winners scooped £6.5m each
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The syndicate, who all work for Hewlett Packard carrying out IT work at a BT office in Liverpool, includes John Walsh, 57, James Bennett, 28, Sean Connor, 32, Alex Parry, 19, Emma Cartwright, 23, Ceri Scullion, 35 and Donna Rhodes, 39, who have each banked £6.5 million.
Syndicate leader Mr Walsh said: “I couldn’t sleep on Sunday morning so ended up checking the numbers on Teletext at 3am.
“I couldn’t believe it when all our numbers came up. I had to wake up my wife, son and daughter so they could double check I wasn’t dreaming.
Mr Walsh said he left the winning ticket in his desk drawer at work so went in on Sunday morning to make sure it was still there and then called the rest of the syndicate to tell them the good news.
He said: “I didn’t quite get the response I expected because, with the economy in the state that it is in, everyone has been worried about jobs, so they all thought I was calling them to tell they had been made redundant.
“But thankfully I got to tell them some good news instead.”
Miss Cartwright said she had not slept or eaten since she found out the news.
She said: “My dad, Barry, was made redundant from his job with General Motors earlier this year so this couldn’t have come at a better time for us.
“I’ll be helping out my family and also paying off my mortgage.
“It is just the best early Christmas present I could have hoped for.”
MORE PICTURES OF THE BRITISH EUROMILLIONS LOTTERY WINNERS IN OUR GALLERY...
AT LAST I HAVE THE STRENGHTH TO CLIMB THE STAIRS
11.11.09, 12:01am
MY WIFE HAS JUST BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH MG AND ITS THE MOST FRIGHTNING CONDITION IVE EVER SEEN ,MY WIFE HAD TROUBLE WITH HER EYES ,SPEECH, EATING, BREATHING, THE USE OF HER ARMS , LEGS AND HER INTERNAL MUSCLES, I would not wish condition on anyone its so horrible, no one seems to know why people develop this condition, my wife is now about to have the operation to have the thymus gland removed. my wife is 61 ,and never had a sick day for over 20 years,,
• Posted by: tonyp456 • Report Comment
JUST HOW DO YOU SPEND £45MILLION?
10.11.09, 2:10pm
I don't know, but I do know I would be working as hard as I could to stop Gordon, the DWP and all the rest of the establishment getting their grubby little pinkies anywhere near it. We are told that looking after the old, frail, infirm and vunerable members of society financed from high levels of taxation is what Socialism is all about so only animal charities need apply.
• Posted by: ricardo • Report Comment
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