Elaine’s not just any shelf stacker...
£2.7m lotto winner keeps M&S job for 25 years to teach kids about hard work
BECOMING an instant millionaire might seem like the perfect opportunity to swap work for a life of leisure.
But almost 25 years after winning £2.7million on the lottery Elaine Thompson, 64, is still happily stacking supermarket shelves.
She insisted on keeping her job to be a role model for her children Gary and Karen who were aged five and ten when she and husband Derek, 62, had their big win in December 1995.
‘It’s important that children see you working hard and that we don’t get any- thing out of life unless you work hard for it,’ said Mrs Thompson.
She had hoped her work ethic would inspire her children to be the first in the family to go to university, which they later did.
She has stuck at her 2am to 9am shift at Marks & Spencer during the pandemic despite being vulnerable as an asthma sufferer.
‘I was leaving the house at 1.15am every morning – I get up at midnight,’ said Mrs Thompson, from Killingworth, Tyne and Wear.
‘A couple of times during lockdown it was really, really hard. I was driving to work thinking, “What am I doing?”
‘But I kept working all the way through. I could not have done furlough. I’m coming up to 65 next week but I’m not ready to retire.’
Mrs Thompson and her husband, a semi-retired accountant, won the lottery on their 17th wedding anniversary and will this year mark their 42nd as they recall their windfall. One of the first things they splashed out on after winning was a new Ford Fiesta and later they bought three racehorses.
They have also enjoyed dozens of trips to Las Vegas in the US, and helped Gary, 30, and Karen, 35, buy their first houses.
But Mrs Thompson’s supermarket shifts four days a week help to keep her grounded.
‘People ask me why I have not got a cleaner,’ she said. ‘If she came to clean, I would have cleaned the house before she got here. I was brought up to be a hard worker – I love to work.’
She added: ‘I absolutely love my job and just because I won the lottery, this didn’t make me want to give up work. I think it is all about balance.
‘I have continued to work but work hours which are suited to me and with the remainder of the time I have been able to help out at and support charities which are close to me.’
According to the National Lottery, more than half of winners still work in some capacity, around a quarter start their own business and many learn new trades.
Camelot’s senior winners’ adviser Andy Carter said: ‘The importance of our careers doesn’t appear to change even after a lottery win, with only a few looking to quit their jobs if they win.’