Maidstone Couple Sails Away with £1 Million Lottery Win
Last Updated: Wednesday 6th August 2014, 11:27
A couple from Maidstone are celebrating after a £1 million lottery win put an end to six years of hell. Wayne and Desirée Home, both 57, became instant millionaires after winning the EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle on Tuesday 29 July and their life-changing prize could not have come at a better time.
In 2008 Desirée was diagnosed with bowel cancer. This was the beginning of a series of health scares as the mum of three experienced respiratory failure and life-threatening double pneumonia during the course of her cancer treatment.
Then, when it looked like things might be improving, Desirée’s life came under threat again as she was rushed into Kings College for spinal surgery. Although she is now on the road to recovery, the various surgeries and treatments have left her with reduced feeling from the waist down and Type 2 Diabetes. If that wasn’t bad enough, the years of treatment and uncertainty resulted in the couple having to sell their family home after they both lost their jobs.
Happy to be able to put the bad times behind them, Wayne said: “We have come through the hard times and this win signals an exciting future for our entire family. Family is everything to us and we will now be able to help our three children out as well as ensure financial security for ourselves for the years to come. We won’t be moving house because we are happy here but I will definitely be handing in my notice and finally saying goodbye to the four hours I have spent commuting every day for the last 18 months.”
IT Manager Wayne discovered they had won the prize early on the Thursday morning, but the self-confessed pessimist did not dare break the news until he was 100 percent certain.
He said, “On Thursday I was up at 5.15am and over a cup of tea, checked our EuroMillions ticket. When the numbers didn’t match I looked at the raffle selection, not for one minute expecting we would have the letters and numbers! I checked it, checked it again and then checked again and sure enough they all matched. I remember thinking ‘should I wake Des up?’ but I still didn’t believe it was real so decided to do one more check again at work.”
The lucky couple can now contemplate how to spend their windfall, although they are not planning on getting carried away. The pair have decided that the bargain boat bought by Wayne on an internet auction site will be upgraded for a better and possibly bigger model. Meanwhile Desirées’ car will be refurbished with a new spray job and plush new seats, and there might even be a Jag for Wayne.
Players in the UK can look forward to a guaranteed jackpot of £2.1 million in tonight’s UK Lotto, along with 50 additional raffle prizes worth £20,000 each. To be in with a chance of improving your financial fortunes, you can purchase your tickets online from our Lottery Tickets Page or from authorised retailers.