Lotto pair scoop £500k as dad gets wind of change
IS THIS the luckiest man in Wales? Colin Wright, 63, and his wife, Alison, 60, from Pontywaun, Newport, have just won £500,000 on the lottery – but it seems to be a case of fate rather than luck.
The pair managed to scoop £500,000.05 on the Thunderball in the National Lottery on Saturday, February 17, and couldn’t believe their luck.
“I’ve been playing the lottery since it started,” Colin said. “Normally I play on the way home from work on a Tuesday – I pop into Morrisons and buy the lottery tickets, just one line with birthday numbers, and get some beer.
“I got one of those slips because it’s the same numbers every week. I play on a Wednesday and a Saturday. Well, you buy it hoping you’re going to get something, but on Sunday morning when I had a look I had a bit of a shock.
“I shouted up to Alison and said, ‘Get down here now!’ She thought I was having a heart attack. As she was coming down the stairs I said, ‘I think we’ve won the lottery’.”
The pair dashed to the local post office in Risca, as Morrisons wasn’t open that early on a Sunday, with Colin just in his jogging bottoms and slippers.
Colin said: “When we walked in I couldn’t speak. My son spoke to the lad on the counter and said, ‘I think my dad’s won the Thunderball’.
“The machine made all the noise and one of those slips came out and the boy said: ‘I can pay up to £50,000 in here but there’s too many noughts on here’.”
But, just a week before the couple scooped the jackpot, Colin had been at the pub and had a strange premonition.
Alison said: “The week before we’d been down the pub on a Sunday and Colin was walking up and he said: ‘I’m going to win the lottery’. And that’s really true.”
Colin added: “But I didn’t think it was going to be that much. I’m a believer in fate.”
And the grandfather-of-four also won on two scratchcards – and £56 on the horses just days later on a £2 bet.
Now the pair, who have worked all their lives, are set to retire early and do all the things they’ve wanted to do.
Colin has worked for Diverse Commercial Solutions, a facilities management company in Rogerstone, since it was founded 11 years ago. Alison has worked as a nursery nurse at a local school for more than 25 years, and plans to hand in her notice soon.
The pair have already put down a deposit on a new motor home, as well as looking to booking the trip of a lifetime to Australia, and will pay off their mortgage.
Alison said: “We wanted to retire but we couldn’t afford to. Before we won the lottery we’d booked to see our financial adviser on the Monday, but when we turned up at the office we said, ‘We’ve turned up for something else’. It was perfect timing.
“We’re off to Australia to see my friend. We lost touch with my friend Barbara. She lived locally but then moved to Newcastle and met a boy and they emigrated to Australia and we lost touch with them.
“We found them on Facebook about two years ago so we can go now.”
And the pair, who are avid Cardiff City fans, say they will also be able to spend more time with their three children, Sam, Kate and Casey, and four grandchildren, including the youngest who is just three weeks old.
Colin said: “It’s totally changed our lives.”