Great way to start the bank holiday weekend - win the Lottery! (From Wirral Globe)

Great way to start the bank holiday weekend - win the Lottery!

3:07pm Friday 24th August 2012 in News By Stephanie Cureton

A WIRRAL couple have scooped more than £400,000 in the EuroMillions.

John and Carol Reddy, from Neston, initially thought it was a “scam” when they were told they had matched all six numbers from their Lucky Dip ticket in Tuesday night’s draw.

John, a self-employed purchasing consultant, said it only began to seem like a reality as the pair collected their cheque for £445,440.80 today.

And they now plan to celebrate their massive win by fulfilling one of their dreams of having their 20-year marriage blessed in a special ceremony abroad.

John, 47, said their win could not have come at a better time as they were struggling to revamp their home and were about to borrow money from his parents.

He said: “We had been decorating the house and had almost finished but desperately needed a new garage door as the existing one just looked totally out of place with all of the work which we had been doing.

“There was no way we were going to be able to afford a new door at the moment and we had already borrowed money from Carol’s parents to help pay for a holiday.

“My parents had kindly offered to lend us the money for the new garage door to enable all of our house refurbishments to be completed.

“Now we do not have to worry about borrowing money or having to pay money back – we can do all of this and have our new garage door at the same time.”

The couple, who have children Ben, 17, and Naomi, 12, plan to splash out of a family holiday as well as a designer ‘WAG bag’ for Carol and a Mercedes SLK convertible for John.

Also on the family’s wish list is to charter a luxury boat on a sunshine break as well as a trip to a National Basketball Association game for keen sportsman Ben.

Chester City fan John has also bought a season ticket for him and his brother as well as sponsoring a game in memory of his late brother-in-law, Kevin, who died after losing his battle with cancer.

Carol, who helped to care for Kevin during the final weeks of his life, added: “I actually believe that it was Kevin who was looking down on us and has sent us this win as a way of saying thank you for all we did.”

Despite regularly playing EuroMillions, John and Carol still believed their win wasn’t correct and thought someone was playing a practical joke.

He said: “I have to admit when I received the email notification telling me I had won I thought it was all a big wind up. I called the number on the back of the ticket and had to ask the lady in the office about 10 times if this was real.

“I still cannot believe it is really me who has won. I have to keep pinching myself to make me believe that this has really happened.

“Meanwhile, Carol has been going through a whole range of emotions, from crying, to shaking and then literally running around the house totally ecstatic.

“This is a lovely sum of money to win. It takes away any future financial worries and just makes us far more comfortable and in a position to be able to help and support our children and family.”

The estimated jackpot for tonight’s EuroMillions (24 August) is £36,000,000.