£35million Euro Millions Lottery winner “I’ll keep my old car”

Article by Patricia Harper

Wednesday 15th August 2007, 11:33

Angela Kelly, the winner of the biggest Euro million pound lottery payout ever has vowed that she would like to keep her small car, even after it was involved in an accident recently and that Angela Kelly has been using her sisters car for the last three weeks.

The 36 year old Post Office worker who has been working at East Kilbride sorting office for the last 24 years and earns just £21,000 a year first thought that she’d only won £10 as she checked off the first two correct numbers in Monday’s edition of the Sun Newspaper.

“I’d been busy all weekend and had not had time to check the numbers” Said Angela. “When I thought I’d got all 6 numbers, I rang the problem line instead thinking I could check the numbers”.

GMTV’s Finona Phillips chaperoned Mrs Kelly during a press conference this morning after the postal worker had received her cheque totaling £35,425,411.00.

She said to waiting press crews that she really has no idea how she plans to spend the money but her 14 year old son certainly does.

“My son has asked for an X-Box, PS3, Wii, a quad bike, but he’ll be going back to school and finishing his exams then getting a job. He’s a down to earth boy who’ll do as he is told”.

The winner of the largest lottery payout in Britain bought her ‘lucky dip’ Euro Lottery ticket for just £1.50 on Friday at Sainsbury’s in East Kilbride – the winning numbers were 23, 40, 42, 43 and 49 and lucky star numbers 2 and 6.

A spokesman for Camelot, which operates the British arm of the European lottery, said: "Camelot can confirm that the winner of Friday's EuroMillions jackpot of £35,425,412 has come forward.

"Their ticket has now been validated and the prize has been paid out. No further details will be given out unless the winner signs a form agreeing to take publicity."

The prize was the result of the EuroMillions jackpot rolling over three times.

The UK's first - and previous biggest - EuroMillions jackpot was won by Marion Richardson from Gateshead, who scooped £16,752,144.80 in April 2004.

The biggest EuroMillions jackpot to date was £77 million, which was won by mother-of-six Dolores McNamara, of Limerick, Ireland, in July 2005. Fiona Phillips – from GMTV

The massive win would mean that at would take Mrs. Kelly 2,000 years to earn the same amount on her post office salary, but from now on, she will earn a whapping 46k a week just in interest alone.

During the press conference, Angela Kelly said:  “I was petrified when I first found out I’d won, you really cannot take it all in to begin with”

The married mother – known as Angela Kelly as her married name is separated from her husband and father of their 14 year old son but never got a divorce. Her previous name of  Cunningham is still used on certain documents and more recently on official papers.

When asked if her husband will have a legal claim to half the money, Mrs. Kelly said she didn’t know. “My ex-husband and I have always got on well, he hasn’t asked me about the money so far, but I expect that I will give him some”.

While the prize money went unclaimed for the whole weekend, Mrs Kelly was asked about how she almost missed the biggest moment of her life.

“I was out with my Girlfriends on Saturday night, Sunday was spent sitting watching TV and I had not read a newspaper all weekend. I went into work as per usual on Monday morning and I saw the headlines about the Euro Lottery winner that bought a ticket in this region, so I thought I must check my ticket”.

I arrived in work at around 7 – 8 am, went for break and bought a copy of the Sun Newspaper. I quickly scanned through and saw the headlines. I remembered I’d bought a ticket and so I picked my bag up, saw my ticket and then I saw that the first 2 numbers matched. I thought I’d won a tenner”.

“But it wasn’t until I saw that all 6 numbers matched that I started to shake and I had to ask all the colleagues around me to verify that I hadn’t got last weeks paper and that the dates all matched up”.

“At first, I phoned the number on the back of the slip but I’d phoned the wrong number by mistake, and it was the phone line for people with problems with their numbers etc”.

“Camelot said I need to read though the serial number, write name and address on the back my hands were shaking – It still hasn’t sunk in, I’m still quite blank – and I don’t know when it will sink in – I was feeling sick this morning, mostly about today – but I have had no thoughts as to what I will do with the money.”

“I had been in an accident previously, I was using my sisters car – I will probably stick with the same car I like small cars.”

“On Monday morning’s I usually go to work, I stop and think about what’s John, my 14 year old son is up to. Usually he’s a handful, he’s 14yrs old. I wonder if things are going to go right at the end of the month, what with the recent strike worries, pay packet is quite important. Things have been hard as a single mum living in a flat in East Kilbride – don’t usually worry about money – I do without if I don’t have money.

“I think I’ll get a bigger house, need to sit down for a couple days, gather my thoughts – John doesn’t want to leave the flat and I probably won’t move too far away, my son has his friends, his school.

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