Our EuroMillions win of €500k was thanks to our lucky new member

A GROUP of workers in a biotech firm who picked up a EuroMillions c heque for €500,000 have put their luck down to the newest member of the syndicate.

Up to 20 workers from the maintenance department at Janssen Biologics in Cork have been playing the EuroMillions together every week since 2007.

Up until now they have had small wins but a couple of changes in the past two months changed their luck.

One was the decision to play the Tuesday draw. The other was welcoming a new member to the syndicate – Hugh Keating.

Tim O’Regan said: ‘We’ve played EuroMillions every week since we started but only began to play for the Tuesday draw as well as the Friday draw just two months ago.

‘And wasn’t Tuesday our lucky day? Around the same time, a new person joined the group. Some of the team are referring to Hugh as our lucky charm.

‘Before Hugh joined, the most we would each win in the year would be about €40. Now we’ve won €25,000 each.’

The maintenance workers said they were delighted with the win as many have young families.

Aged between 31 and 47 years of age, 16 of the group are married with young families and two are engaged to be married, with one wedding planned for next year.

Between them, the syndicate members have 28 children, ranging from newborns up to a 16-year-old, and there are a few babies on the way too.

Mr O’Regan said: ‘We couldn’t be happier about the win.

‘It will come in handy with a few weddings coming up, and there are plans for home improvements and people saving for home deposits. There are lots of happy homes in Cork.’

The l ucky syndicate bought their €96 Quick Pick multidraw ti cket i n SuperValu on Main Street, Carrigaline, Co. Cork, on Friday, April 3.

They won the EuroMillions Plus top prize in the Tuesday, April 28, draw.

Tonight’s EuroMillons jackpot is worth an estimated €50million.

On Saturday, the National Lottery jackpot of €5.9million was scooped by one lucky winner who had spent €16 on tickets at Tesco in the Mullingar Shopping Centre on the Ashe Road, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. The shop will now receive a €15,000 ‘ agent bonus’ for selling the winning ticket.

The winner has 90 days to collect their prize from the National Lottery office.