This week we take a look at previous big winners from Bo’ness

Philip Dunning is the current man of the moment having scooped the Lotto jackpot last week with a win of £7.8 million.

His winning numbers were 4, 11, 27, 28, 30, 49 with a bonus ball of 47.

The Gazette has had a look at previous local winners in what appears to be a pretty lucky area.

Jim McGurk was 47 when he won £1.35 million almost exactly 20 years ago in May 1995.

The administration officer at West Lothian Council carried on working for a while but took early retirement, much as he had planned to.

He and his wife Joyce have two sons and moved to a bigger house within a few months of winning the cash which they still live in today.

They don’t believe it made too much of a difference to them otherwise and Jim was involved in the Deacons’ Court as secretary for a number of years until illness meant that he had to give that up.

Mrs McGurk was quick to point out that money does not buy you good health.

She said: “It certainly takes a lot of worries away but you have to make the money work for you.

‘‘I would say to Philip ‘Enjoy it and make the most of it.’ I very much enjoyed the champagne when my husband won!”

Annette Brown was 77 when she won £1.15 million to become the 2500th National Lottery millionaire on October 13, 2010.

That was a share of a jackpot worth £2.3 million along with one other player. She discovered she had won when she called into Pozzo’s newsagents in the town centre to check her numbers.

She usually checked these on the TV but her daughter Dorothy, partner Kenny and their baby had been staying so she had not been able to watch the results programme that evening.

The retired dinner lady who lived on a pension of £114 a week at the time was so shocked that the newsagent had to take her home and tell her daughter what had happened.

As she was already in the middle of redecorating her house the first thing she planned to buy was a new carpet and go to Canada to visit relatives, as well as spoiling her four children and grandchildren.

A widow for 20 years since she lost her husband, David, to cancer in 1990, Mrs Brown said she would think carefully before spending anything.

‘I think my husband is looking down at me now and smiling,’ she said. It still hasn’t sunk in. I won’t go mad and I definitely won’t be moving. I’ve lived in my house for 38 years and I love the area.

Annette’s numbers were 18,19,24,26,27 & 44.

John Bell was formerly a miner when he won his £2 million in 1997. He bought his ticket at Argee Stores in the town.

The shop was home to one of the country’s luckiest machines - and was at the heart of the amazing Golden Triangle where SEVEN Scots have become Lotto millionaires.

Mr Bell started up a car wash business in Polmont in 2004 which he has since sold.

At the time he said he wasn’t going to ‘‘spend, spend, spend’ and would be careful with his winnings.