Man wins £2.6M lottery jackpot, but doesn't wake wife

Sep 15, 2010, 2:19 pm (9 comments)

UK National Lottery

A British couple had two great reasons to celebrate last week — firstly it was their ruby wedding anniversary, marking 40 years of marriage, and secondly they won £2.6 million (US$4 million) on the Lotto.

But after realizing that he had a winning ticket, Philip Sawyer, from Shard End, simply sipped his cup of tea, read his book and didn't wake his wife, Sandra.

The 60-year-old former car salesman was convinced that his wife had played a practical joke on him — and made her check the numbers herself an hour later.

The couple, who had been buying Lotto tickets as part of a family syndicate for three years, will share their winnings four ways with their two daughters Amanda, 38, and Nicola 39.

"We were looking forward to meeting with the girls for the wedding anniversary last weekend and I had bought my four Lucky Dip tickets as usual and thought nothing more of it," he said.

"We'd celebrated the anniversary by going tenpin bowling and playing some games at home like Scrabble — we'd never done anything too flash, it's just nice to all be together.

"After I put my specs on I checked the numbers online and realized I'd got six numbers — it was a very good feeling!

"I habitually get up at 7am and I made a cup of tea and then checked the lottery results.

"I went to wake Sandra and she thought it was a joke at first, so I had to explain to her that there was something I had to tell her.

"She thought it was bad news, but when we finally realized what we'd won we had a bit of a cry, because these things just never happen to us.

"We just do ordinary things to celebrate the anniversary as a family, although we will probably have a nicer holiday this year to the Canary Islands."

Aside from the holiday, the Sawyers plan to move out of their three-bedroom council house and Philip has his eye on a BMW X5.

Daughters Amanda and Nicola both plan to buy their own houses, while Nicola is planning to buy a new Mini.

Both girls also confirmed they want to stay in their jobs "for now" to stop themselves becoming bored.

Nicola, a hotel receptionist, said: "It's going to change things more for Mum and Dad than for us, because they can enjoy what they've got now.

"You do worry about your parents not working, but they can do what they want now, which is great because they've spent their lives looking after us."

Retail administrator Amanda added: "The most we had ever won was £10, so this will just make things a lot easier for all of us."

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

News story photo(Click to display full-size in gallery)

Thanks to truecritic for the tip.

Daily Mail

Comments

PERDUE

I am sooooo happy for the whole family. What a wonderful way to live in retirement. I pray they all have 10 more healthy decades here among us.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Great story, great family.

I'm very happy for them and wish them the best.

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Amusing story -- congratulations!Embarassed

themagician's avatarthemagician

4$ Millions! Wow, good for this family, congratulations! this is the kind of news I like!Wink

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

The headline on this story reminds me of an old joke:

Sometimes I wake up grumpy in the morning.

Sometimes I just let her sleep.

ThatScaryChick's avatarThatScaryChick

Congrats to the Sawyers on their win. Smiley

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Ain't that something? The biggest I've ever won is $150 and that was back in 2007. Oh well, I'ma keep playing and we'll see.

myturn's avatarmyturn

Congratulations to then!

 

But I don't understand why they went public about it. The UK lottery gives winners to option a remaining anonymous and the vast majority, very wisely do. They are going to have people pestering them until the money is gone.

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

i wouldn't wake the wife either, ....

hopefully ill be out of the state before she wakes up and even realises what has happened

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