Couple win £1m on lotto for second time in 2 years
And the odds of doing it are a staggering 283BILLION-to-one
YOU would think the last thing on a lottery winner’s shopping list would be another ticket.
But after scooping £1million two years ago, David and Kathleen Long decided they would try their luck again.
And against staggering odds of 283 billion-toone, they have just won their second million.
‘I just had a feeling it was going to be me,’ David Long, 59, said yesterday. ‘I just knew it would be my turn again some day.’
As well as the cash, he and his wife won a Jaguar in Friday’s draw, which offered ten chances to win a big raffle prize alongside the usual jackpot. Mrs Long, 63, said she checked the ticket ‘ hundreds of times’ when her excited husband showed it to her, before finally conceding: ‘You said you’d do it again – and you have.’
Their first stroke of luck came in 2013, when the former HGV driver decided to fish an old lottery ticket out of the bin before going to buy a newspaper. He believed it to be worth around £2.70, only discovering when he arrived at the shop that it was worth ‘a heck of a lot more’.
That million-pound windfall allowed the couple, from Scunthorpe, to finally marry after 12 years of engagement. They also splashed out on a holiday home and a new house for Mr Long’s mother – but decided to
‘I just had a feeling it would be me’
remain in their compact static caravan where they have lived for over a decade.
‘That win was fantastic and couldn’t have come at a better time,’ Mr Long said. ‘Times had been really tough and I had been really ill for three years, unable to work.’
He initially went back to his role as a driver for a local transport business but later decided to take early retirement.
Now the couple say they’re looking to find a more spacious property, with Mr Long hoping for somewhere with a games room and bar. They also have plans to treat themselves to a cruise around the Mediterranean.
‘Kath and I had a fantastic wedding last year but we never took a honeymoon because I’m just not keen on the idea of flying,’ Mr Long said.
‘Kath would love me to book a Mediterranean cruise and I think I have just run out of excuses.’
Last week’s win followed a spur-of-the-moment purchase when he saw a poster advertising the draw in a supermarket – and instinctively decided to buy five lines using his usual numbers. ‘I thought “yeah I’ll give that a go”,’ he said.
‘I always knew I’d win, even the first time. I tend to play when I know there are lots of prizes.’
Checking the numbers at home, he says he called his wife over to confirm it after realising they had won a second time. ‘I said “Have a look at this. It’s there, look, read that line”.’ He added that they have had ‘ an amazing 18 months’. A spokesman for Camelot, which runs EuroMillions in the UK, said it was an ‘ extraordinary situation’. ‘As you can imagine, we see winners who win once who are very, very shocked,’ he said. ‘It must be even more shocking to win twice.’
It may not be the first time luck has struck twice for the same lottery winners.
In the past there have been rumours about people winning large sums twice, but they have chosen to remain anonymous.
And in a typically confident fash- ion, Mr Long said a second win would not deter him from playing in future – and insisted a third win was possible. ‘They say things come in threes, don’t they?’ he said. ‘Third time lucky and all that.’ Mrs Long added: ‘He probably will.’