A couple who won £61 million with a Euromillions ticket thought they'd scooped just £2.60. Richard and Debbie Nuttall, both 54, from Colne in Lancashire won the massive prize in the draw on Tuesday, January 30.
On Wednesday they told how they were on holiday in Fuerteventura where they were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary when they learned of their big win. Richard said they were on the second day of their break and he had got up early to finish some work.
He said: "I noticed the email from The National Lottery stating that there was ‘exciting news about your ticket’. So I checked my National Lottery account and saw the balance had gone up and we’d won £2.60.
"Fair enough. I shut my laptop, had breakfast and then we set off for the day, driving around the island. We enjoyed the sea views, blue skies and windsurfers before heading back.
“It was early afternoon when we spotted another email saying we should check our account. I thought it was odd and there must be a glitch in the system to get a duplicate email but I logged in again to my National Lottery account to check. We were totally stunned, it said we had won over £61M!
“We just couldn’t make sense of it. My first thought was it must be a scam or there was some mix-up."
He added: "I know it sounds crazy but we couldn’t think straight! I tried calling The National Lottery’s number but my mobile phone signal was poor and the call just kept dropping.
"So I WhatsApped the family chat group asking for one of our daughters to call us urgently. My youngest came back quickly and we asked her to log into our National Lottery account from the UK and double-check.
"She put in my details and then just kept repeating ’oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!’ It must be real, this was the official National Lottery website we were all looking at.”
Once they managed to get it confirmed Richard said they "went mental" He said: “Well, by this time me and Debs are going mental…jumping up and down in our car seats, punching the air, thumping the dashboard…the car must have been rocking...it was the whole Delboy and Rodney scene when they finally became millionaires outside Sotheby's!”
The pair then flew home, despite being just a few days into their week-long trip. Plans for their money include a new family home, still in their beloved Lancashire, and also a Portugal holiday home.
Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor at The National Lottery, said: “This is absolutely incredible news and we’re delighted that we’ve received a claim. This is the first UK EuroMillions jackpot win of 2024, following on from an incredible 2023 which saw six UK EuroMillions jackpots won, including a £111.7million win by an anonymous single ticket-holder in June. Our focus is now on supporting this latest lucky ticket-holder through the process and helping them start to enjoy their truly life-changing win.”
