I kept £32m lottery ticket in my wallet – for a week!
Teachers too busy painting their house to pick up prize
MOST lottery winners endure intense stress and sleepless nights while they wait for their ticket to be verified.
But when Gerry Cannings discovered that he and his wife had won more than £32million, he calmly popped the slip in his wallet and waited for nearly a week while decorators finished painting their house.
The 63-year-old retired teacher and his wife Lisa, 48, decided they wanted the job completed before dealing with the disruption to their lives the huge jackpot would cause.
Dressed in a comfortable polo shirt for a photocall yesterday, he said: ‘We are not the rushing sort.’
Mrs Cannings added: ‘I know it sounds mad but we had a guy in to paint the whole house. We just thought it would be easier to wait, although it did mean that Gerry had to carry round the winning ticket in his wallet all week.’
The couple’s win of £32,534,188 – the second biggest in Lotto history – is enough to buy their £220,000 1970s detached house in Deeping St James, Lincolnshire, 147 times over. However, they now plan to buy a larger home big enough to sleep all the family at Christmas.
The couple married in 2003 and have one son, Sam, who is 11. Mr Cannings also has two sons – Tom, 34, and Andrew, 31 – from a previous marriage, whose mortgages will be paid off, and five grandchildren.
His ex-wife Jenny now lives in St Albans with her husband, Peter Brown. Speaking at her £280,000 terraced house yesterday, the management consultant said: ‘ I’m pleased for him – I’m pleased for my children because now their futures will be secure.
‘I would never ask for any money from my ex-husband. Why would I?’
Keen golfer Mr Cannings is planning to upgrade his estate car to something wide enough to hold his clubs. He and his wife are big Lord of the Rings fans and hope to visit New Zealand where the movie trilogy was filmed. ‘We can go where we want – and travel first class too,’ said Mr Cannings. ‘After looking after the family, what this money brings is a chance to enjoy new experiences and see places we thought we would never get to see.’
The couple were visiting Mr Cannings’ elderly parents Victor and Joan in Datchet, Berkshire, when he decided to pop out to get fish and chips on February 13.
He bought five lucky dips on the spur of the moment after spotting a National Lottery poster advertising a big rollover, and discovered the next morning he had hit the jackpot with 15, 16, 23, 39, 48 and 59. The win follows a rule change last year in which ten extra numbers, 50 to 59, were added, increasing the odds of winning from around 14million-to- one to 45million-to- one. Fans were furious earlier this month when the top prize was just £883, won by 78 players for match-
‘We are not the rushing sort’
ing five numbers. Lotto bosses insist overall sales have increased.
Describing the moment his young son confirmed the winning numbers, Mr Cannings said: ‘I doublechecked it, reading it backwards and forwards. It just didn’t seem real but it looked right.’
He contacted game organisers Camelot immediately and, after getting a call back from the firm, carried on playing cards with his father before his wife cleaned the oven.
They then waited until the end of the week before meeting a representative who checked the ticket.
‘We were having the house decorated inside so I said, “Can we make it Thursday?”’ Mr Cannings said. ‘The ticket stayed in my wallet and was with me all the time. I had signed it and it had my name on the back.’
Mrs Cannings, who speaks seven languages, admitted calling in sick to her job teaching Spanish at Hampton College in Peterborough and is now considering early retirement. She previously taught at The Deepings School in Deeping St James where Mr Cannings was head of the sixth form and taught history until he retired in 2012.
The couple’s win places them second in the all-time Lotto rich list, behind David and Carol Martin, who scooped £ 33,035,323 last month – half of a record jackpot – and another anonymous ticketholder who got the other half.
Yesterday’s £ 24.6million EuroMillions lotto jackpot was won by a ticket bought in the UK, Camelot announced last night.