Winning the lottery is a dream of millions of us in the UK.
And tonight’s EuroMillionen jackpot of £ 172 million could turn one lucky ticket holder into the biggest lottery winner of all time.
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It was thanks to “forgetfulness” that Derek Ladner and his wife Dawn won the lotteryPhoto credit: PA
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Libby Elliot’s late father gave her the money to buy her lottery ticketImage credit: Camelot
Predicting the lucky number combination is harder than it seems and with the likelihood of hitting the lottery jackpot of one in 45 million, few of us will.
Mathematicians say there are a number of probabilistic selection strategies to increase your chances of winning, but the reality is that being struck by lightning is easier.
However, many of the previous lucky winners announce that they won the grand prizes due to unusual – but fortunate – circumstances.
Won twice in the same drawing after “forgetting” the ticket
Derek and Dawn Ladner from Redruth, Cornwall, loved it when the same six numbers they used every week finally showed up in the weekday lottery draw.
They originally took £ 479,142 out of the £ 2,395,710 jackpot for bagging the grand prize with five other winners.
A week later, however, Derek, then 57, had quite a shock when he found a second lottery ticket in his pocket.
It was of the same prize draw and thanks to his forgetfulness – when he wagered twice with the same lucky numbers – their winnings rose to £ 958,284.
In 2007, lottery operator Camelot told the Daily Mail: “[Derek] bought a winning ticket but forgot, then went off to buy another and ended up with two shares.
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“He collected his first winnings when the drawing was made … [later] he found the second ticket and found that he was a double winner.
“He is the first to win a draw twice. It must have been a big and happy surprise. “
Daughter nags
Lucky Kerri-Ann Robinson from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was studying business administration when she won the jackpot.
The mature student, then 41 years old, was looking after her three-year-old daughter when she “begged for black currant juice” in 2007.
Kerri-Ann sped into the shops at lunchtime and “picked a lucky dip for the lottery draw that night.”
The next day, during a break from class, she checked the numbers and found that she had won £ 2,543,691.
In 2019, the mother of two told the Mirror: “When I realized I had won, everything got blurry.
“I put my ticket in my pencil case, called my mom and burst into tears. She thought something terrible had happened. “
Kerri-Ann used some of the money to fund her “dream wedding” in 2010 and described going to the altar as “one of the most magical moments of my life”.
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Kerri-Ann only picked up a ticket because his daughter molested herPhoto credit: John Kirkby – The Sun Glasgow
Papa’s pocket money
A visit to the hospital to see her father resulted in the lucky Libby Elliot from Aberdeenshire, Scotland winning £ 2,169,664 in the lottery.
Shortly before he left, he gave his grandchildren pocket money and his daughter “two pounds pocket money”.
In 2013, Libby, then 57, told the Daily Record, “On a whim, I put it on the Lucky Dip on my way home.”
The next day, her father couldn’t believe the news and was amazed that Libby was in the hospital with him instead of planning how to spend her money.
She remembered him saying, “Look at you, you’re a multimillionaire and you’re sitting here next to me.”
Libby said the memory “still makes me cry” and her life has changed drastically since then.
She lost 11 stones and traveled “the world on dream trips – from Jerusalem via Route 66 to Buenos Aires”.
Copied customer
Jamie Heavens of Bournemouth won £ 1 million with a Millionaire Riches Scratch Card in 2016.
The then 26-year-old roofer was waiting to buy something to drink at the gas station when he realized that he was taking in the wrong taste.
He had to go to the back of the queue and noticed the “man in front of me bought a scratch card”.
Jamie recalls, “So I chose the same card as him.
“I drove to a rest stop to scrape it and found I had won, but it was 7:30 in the morning and I had another day shift to go.
“I couldn’t get a signal so I climbed up on the roof we were working on and called Camelot, I won a million pounds and made another 100 pounds for my shift.
The big win allowed him and his partner to afford the wedding of their dreams, but instead of getting carried away by his fortune, they live a humble life.
Earlier this year, Jamie told The Sun that he wore Primark clothing, shopped at Asda, and treated his family to a Toby Carvery once a month.
About the happy gas station purchase, he said: “It’s a chain of events that would change my life.”
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Jamie continues to live humbly despite having £ 1 millionCredit: Delivered
Unexpected victory
Like many lottery players, Patrick and Frances Connolly “always hoped” that they would win but didn’t have high hopes.
But two years ago, on New Years Day, they won £ 114,969,775 at the EuroMillions after playing every week for years.
When the couple from County Armagh, Northern Ireland found out about the “life changing” sum, they humbly celebrated with “a cup of tea and a hug”.
They told ITV, “I always hoped that one day we would win the lottery, but when we did it was just our luck that many others would win the same day with the same numbers.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that we would ever win nearly £ 115 million.”
Last year it was revealed that the Connollys gave away half of their jackpot to 50 friends and family, various charities and those in need during the coronavirus pandemic.
Not all lottery winners have such humble tastes, including lottery runner Michael Carroll, who bagged £ 9.7 million in 2002.
The former garbage collector, branded as the “King of the Chavs”, wasted his fortune on “drugs, sex and gold”.
Callie Rogers, who became the UK’s youngest lottery winner in 2003 at the age of 16, spent thousands of her £ 1.9 million jackpot on wild parties, three titty jobs, designer clothes and drugs.
And Lee Ryan, who raked in £ 6.5million in 1995, went penniless and spent two years on the streets after wasting his money on luxury cars, a helicopter and a £ 2million house.
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Frances and Patrick Connolly have spent more than half of their £ 115 million jackpotPhoto credit: PA: Press AssociationMystery as a lottery winner with a $ 45,000 lottery ticket found dead when the body washed up on the beach after failing to process the prize
