Cork man reveals financial pressure before scooping ’life changing’ €500k euromillions win
A Cork man who has been under huge pressure financially, living month to month and working overtime, today claimed a life-changing prize of €500,000 after his numbers came up on the EuroMillions Plus draw.
The ecstatic husband and Dad said the win will transform his families lives, allowing him and his wife to pay their mortgage and put aside money for their young children’s education and futures.
They were the second big winners through the doors of the National Lottery winners room today.
A recently retired Dublin woman – who was unaware she had a winning ticket in her handbag for four weeks - collected her cheque for a handsome €320,208 after Matching 5 + Lucky Star in the EuroMillions Draw from Friday 29th September.
The lucky Cork man sat beside his wife in the National Lottery Winner’s Room this morning, clearly overjoyed at all the zeroes on his winning €500,000 cheque.
The couple said they were still having trouble believing they had won the princely sum, but vowed to do “a lot of sensible things” with the money, including bringing their children on a dream holiday to Disneyland Paris next year.
The winner described the moment he broke the news to his wife that they had hit the jackpot. He said: “I came in from work after calling up the National Lottery, where they broke the news to me that I had won €500,000. I told the kids to go out and play and asked my wife to sit down. Immediately she thought that I had lost my job so I had to reel her in for a minute and then just told her we’d won half a million!”
“A few days have now passed and both of us are awake every night talking about this win. I’m still waiting for someone to wake me up from this dream. We’re going to clear the mortgage and put money aside for our children’s college fund and towards securing their futures. Our eldest has been asking us for years can we go to Disneyland so we’re going to do that next year!” he continued.
The man spoke of how tight finances have been over the past couple of years, like a lot of families all over the country.
“Month to month things have been tight and we’re always looking at where we can save money and even look to do overtime where I can. This win is going to allow us to plan for all of our futures and I can’t say how grateful we are to have won”.
The winner bought his winning ticket at O’Reilly Maxol Service Station, Watercourse in Cork City owned by Seamus O’Reilly who is no stranger to big National Lottery wins. The store sold two Lotto jackpot winning tickets in 1991 and in 1992, and a Lotto Plus 1 ticket worth €300,000 in 2004.
Also claiming a life-changing EuroMillions prize from the National Lottery offices today was a joyous pensioner from Dublin who scooped a Match 5 + Lucky Star prize of €320,208 from Friday 29th September. The lucky lady purchased her winning ticket at the Spar store in Ashtown in Dublin 7 and she confessed she was completely unaware the winning ticket was in her handbag for four weeks!
“I was in the store recently and noticed posters saying that they had sold a big EuroMillions prize. But it never dawned on me to check my own ticket! I’ve been walking around for the past four weeks with a €320,000 EuroMillions ticket in my handbag! I have recently retired so the timing of the windfall couldn’t have been better. It gives us an extra little cushion to enjoy the finer things in life and not worry about the money side of things for the time being.”
The lucky Dubliner admitted that she has still not shared the good news with her family but she is hatching a cunning plan to announce her incredible news in style. “I still haven’t told a soul”, she laughed. “I’ve made arrangements to buy all of the family brand new cars so I’m going to have them delivered up to the house and then tell them the wonderful news then. It’s going to be a surprise they’ll never forget,” she said.
Want to share that winning feeling? You could be the one who breaks the EuroMillions Plus record and be the 28th top prize winner of 2017 on tonight’s draw (Friday 3rd November) and bag a tidy €500,000 in the process. At a cost of just €1 extra per line, the EuroMillions Plus draw gives players an extra chance to win this half million euro prize.
Tonight’s EuroMillions jackpot is an estimated €30 million.
Approximately 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games go back to Good Causes in the areas of sport, youth, health, welfare, education, arts and heritage. In total more than €5 Billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery was established 30 years ago. In 2016 alone, the National Lottery raised over €210 million for such good causes.
