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Lottery winner still in shock
15/08/2007 14:01 - (SA)
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| Angela Kelly the winner of the Euro Millions lottery jackpot, celebrates at a press conference in Falkirk, Scotland. (Andrew Milligan, AP) |
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Airth - Britain's biggest lottery winner was stunned into silence when she realised she'd scooped £35m (R512m) with a single ticket.
Postal worker Angela Kelly, 40, said on Wednesday she was still in shock after claiming the weekend jackpot that makes her one of the richest women in the country.
The mother-of-one, from East Kilbride, near Glasgow, only realised she had won three days after the draw when she checked her EuroMillions ticket at her desk at work.
"I couldn't really say anything," she told a news conference in Airth, near Falkirk. "I just pushed my chair back and put my head between my knees because I was so flabbergasted."
She will leave the sorting office where she has worked for more than 20 years next week. The jackpot's weekly interest is worth the same as her £21 000 annual salary, she said.
Kelly automatically becomes one of the richest people in the country, overtaking Wayne Rooney and even Princes William and Harry on the Sunday Times Rich List.
But despite her newfound wealth, she has no plans to go on a mammoth spending spree.
She wants to move to a bigger house in the same area with her son John, 14, and buy a replacement Seat Ibiza after her last one was damaged in an accident.
"I'd want to stick with the same car, I like driving small cars," she said. Her son has already been given a PlayStation 3 games console and now wants a quadbike.
Estranged husband
Kelly said she plans to speak to her estranged husband Gerry about the jackpot win, but refused to say if he will get a share. The pair separated eight years ago but never divorced.
In the meantime, she plans to go on holiday to Canada and may one day visit Hawaii.
"It's unbelievable," she said. "I just can't get my head round it."
The winning numbers were: 23, 40, 42, 43, 49, plus 2 and 6.
The amount dwarfs the previous biggest British EuroMillions win by Marion Richardson, from Gateshead, northeast England, who netted £16.8m in April 2004.
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