I have played the lottery since I was 18. I always felt I was going to win big one day. When my children were born, I started using regular numbers based on their birthdays and birth weights. In June 2018, I was doing a client’s colour at my hair salon in Talgarth in mid-Wales, where I live. While we waited for the colour to take, I got my lottery ticket and popped next door to the shop to check if I had won anything.
The shop was busy. It’s a small town, and as a hairdresser I knew everyone in the queue, so we started chatting away. The woman behind the till scanned my ticket. She said, “I’ll have to give you the ticket back. I can’t pay it.” The person from the Post Office counter said, “I can pay up to £50,000 if he wants to come here.” She replied, “No, it’s more than that.” Everyone in the queue was asking, “What’s he won?”
I still didn’t know. The woman had said I’d won the raffle prize but I didn’t know what it was. I went back to my salon and had a look online. That’s when I saw it: I’d won £1m.
I phoned my partner, Faye, who was working nights at the time and wasn’t pleased about me waking her up. She said, “Are you sure we’ve won a million?” She told me to call the helpline.
I rang and they said that I had won £1m, and started going through the next steps, but the timer went off for my client’s hair colour and I had to go. It was bizarre to have this big news and go back to hair, but it kept me grounded.
In between clients, my mind was racing. I called the helpline after work and they confirmed that I’d won. I was overwhelmed. Everyone thinks, “If I win a million pounds, I’m going to do this.” But it’s different once you actually win. I didn’t think it was real for a long time.
I didn’t touch the money for ages. I didn’t want to see it go. The first thing we did was give some to our four children. Then we bought the house we’d been renting, got new cars and a field for our dogs to run around in. Then we got married. We’d been together for 10 years and never been away together, so we went to Dubai for our first holiday and the Maldives for our honeymoon. We bought a minibus for the local rugby club and gifted some cars to friends and family.
Even though I’d won, I carried on playing the lottery. I switched to playing on the app rather than buying tickets in the shop, in case people asked why I was still doing it. I felt my numbers were lucky, so I stuck with them. It’s bizarre, but I always felt I’d win a second time.
In November last year, I checked my messages in the app. It said that I had won £1m. It was 6.30am and I was half asleep. I woke Faye up and said, “Can you pinch me to make sure I’m awake?” We couldn’t believe it.
By then, I had started working as a delivery driver and it was time to go to work. People often say that the first thing they’d do after winning the lottery is quit their jobs, but I’d initially carried on hairdressing after the first win. I was proud of my business and felt loyal to my customers, and wanted to stay grounded. I then closed the salon in 2023 and spent a year fixing up a camper van.
Not working wasn’t good for my mental health, and after a year off, a friend offered me a courier job. That morning, I was loading the lorry and kept smiling to myself. At lunchtime, I called the helpline. I spoke to the same guy who’d been on the phone when I won the first time. He couldn’t believe it. Neither could we.
The first thing we did was give money to our kids again. Then we bought our dream house. We don’t have plans for the rest of the money yet. We’re from a small community where everyone knows us – people have been really happy for us.
The chances of winning the lottery twice are said to be over 24 trillion to one. Even though I always felt I would win a second time, it’s hard to believe that it actually happened. Do I still play the lottery? Oh yes – you never know what may happen.
As told to Isabelle Aron
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