A West Lothian school caretaker is planning to take early retirement after scooping more than £180,000 on the EuroMillions.
And John McDowell, 53, from Bathgate has already pledged to get his brother a passport for his first holiday abroad and will also help to get his daughters get on the property ladder.
The dad-of-three, who won £183,257.40 on September 6, wants to retire by the time he is 60, help his mother get a new kitchen, and – as a treat for himself – buy a new car. and to get his mother a new kitchen after winning .
Mr McDowell is a carer for his father and woke him up to tell him the news after seeing the life-changing email. He booked a holiday for Egypt at Christmas to take his brother abroad for the first time, and has begun the process of getting him a passport.
John said: “I absolutely love my job but winning this money will mean I get to retire that little bit earlier and put my feet up sooner. I can’t wait to treat my family – my brother has never been abroad before so the first thing I wanted to do was book a holiday somewhere hot and sunny for us both.
“I asked him whether he fancied spending Christmas in Egypt, as it would be nice to spend some time swapping the cold Scottish weather for somewhere warm at that time of year. He agreed, so I told him to get a passport ordered. It will be a really special holiday.
“I have been wanting to get myself a new car for a while, but I’ve been putting it off, but I’ll definitely be shopping for one soon. I like to travel up north to get away from it all, so I’d love to get an SUV-style car – maybe a Kia Sportage – to help me explore.
“I would also like to help my daughters plan for their futures, so I’ll now also be able to help them to get on the property ladder when the time’s right.”
John described the feeling of winning as “surreal” after three years of buying lottery tickets. He matched the five main numbers and one Lucky Star number in the EuroMillions draw on September 6. The winning numbers from that draw were 12, 14, 34, 41, 47 and the Lucky Star numbers were 3 and 4.
Mr McDowell said: “On the night I won, I was just about to go to bed and had a quick look at my phone and saw an email from The National Lottery. I was going to ignore it as I thought it would be nothing, but curiosity got the better of me and I had a look and realised it said I had matched five main numbers and one Lucky Star.
“Everyone in the house was in bed so I made myself a cup of tea before telling anyone – I then woke my dad up to tell him and he didn’t understand at first – he thought I was joking. It’s so surreal, I still can’t believe it.”
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