Philip’s quids in after modest Lotto flutter!
The 44-year-old from Bo’ness scooped Saturday’s £7.8 million rollover.
This morning at the Macdonald Inchyra Hotel in Polmont he spoke about his life-changing good fortune.
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Hide AdHe admitted that one of the first things he did was resign from his job of 15 years as a shift manager with Caledonian Produce in Bo’ness, along with partner Gina Meikle (45), who had worked there for 22 years.
Philip, who grew up in Bankhead, Linlithgow, said: “It is still a kind of surreal situation at the moment.
“We still can’t quite take it in. I am in a state of shock but I am sure over time that will become reality.
“Family will come first on our list and they will all be well looked after.”
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Hide AdThe couple were phoned by co-worker Sandra Easton, who is also Gina’s best friend, around 9.15 p.m. on Saturday evening to tell them of their mammoth win.
Philip said: “The phone call was quite short and simple. It was ‘Switch on your TV! You’ve won the Lottery!’ So of course that was that we did.
“The first thing we saw was the numbers there staring at us on the screen and that’s when we realised that we had won the jackpot.
“Once we realised that we had the winning numbers I then went on to the National Lottery website and waited for it to be updated to see how much we had actually won and how many winners there were.”
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Hide AdSandra was privy to their chosen numbers as Philip explained that he always played the same numbers every week since the Lottery started: 4, 11, 27, 28, 30, 49 with a bonus ball of 47. He had originally chosen the winning numbers entirely at random.
Philip, who bought his winning ticket at Newtown Post Office, said: “Sandra always said to us ‘I’ll check your numbers for you every Wednesday and Saturday and if you win I’ll give you a phone.’ That’s exactly what she did!
“It’s a fantastic feeling not to be going back to work to be honest! We’ve dreamt about it for years.”