There are many important phone calls that we make during our life. One to confirm a lottery win is a rather pleasant and often eventful one. The National Lottery have released some of the best ones they have received. One sees a player discover they’ve won slightly more than they had initially thought.
37-year-old Sandra Devine, from Johnstone in Scotland received a big surprise last November. It was her husband Martin’s birthday and the plan was to go for a meal at an Italian restaurant. That was fully booked so they went out to buy some beers and some scratchcards.
One of them won her £100 or did it? Sandra was already “over the moon” but then her husband told her it was £1,000. Then they phoned Camelot to confirm their win.
Then came the big shock. “Are you sitting down?” said the Camelot employee. “You’ve won the jackpot of £300,000” she continued and Sandra couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Minutes later her husband and her youngest son were wildly celebrating by jumping all over the living room.
It appears that both Sandra and Martin had failed to notice the two squares that indicated they’d won the £300,000 jackpot. The family were still in lockdown but on the following Friday went Christmas shopping, well it was November.
The win has massively changed their life but Sandra says “we remain the same people we were before.” A new car has been purchased and they are looking to buy a bigger house.
Another of the phone calls released featured Welsh players Stephen Schlitz (a £1m winner in 2019) and Diane Bate, who scooped £3.8m last year. There are many ways in which you can react to a lottery win. For Diane, it was checking her numbers six times and then being sick. The 70-year-old spent the rest of the day in a daze.
As for Stephen, his call to Camelot took place amid a lot of jumping up and down. “ “I nearly had a heart attack making that call! I felt a real mixture of emotions – it was excitement and disbelief and everything else rolled into one.” He added that the call was “the best feeling in the world” as all his money worries disappeared.
The National Lottery have reported that 35% of people discovering a lottery win would engage in an emotional rollercoaster of kissing. 29% would scream at the top of their lungs and 28% burst into tears.
Andy Carter is the senior winners advisor at The National Lottery. He’s seen plenty of reactions to life-changing wins and they do “certainly differ.” That includes those already having a celebratory party, others feeling sick, some jumping up and down (and then feeling sick) and even some people fainting!” Some though have remained secretive about their win, looking to get some helpful advice on how to cope with what has happened.
