Road sweeper cleans up
Joseph Whiting got up for his daily shift at 4am, checked his ticket and discovered he had won £4.5M – but still went to clean the streets of Camden.
The committed road sweeper of 14 years admitted to walking round in a daze before finally confirming his good fortune with Camelot after he finished.
He is now binning his broom and planning a brighter future as one of three ticketholders who shared the giant Lotto Quadruple Rollover jackpot on Wednesday 17th September, banking £4,570,887.
It must have been fate. I shouldn’t have gone out, and still don’t know why I got up and decided to go.
Top of Joseph’s wish list is to ditch the alarm clock after years of 5am starts, but his plans go beyond having a lie-in. With three children from a previous relationship he admits it is them his thoughts turn to, saying:
"The main thing is that it will give my kids a future. I can get a house and a garden where I can see them and they can come and stay."
Joseph will learn to drive, never having got round to it until now, and will take his time planning how to spend his win.
"I’ve not been on holiday for 3 or 4 years," he says, "and this will take a huge amount of pressure off. I can pay some bills, get a house and learn to drive. I will treat my mum who hasn’t been well and help friends and family. It will be good to help everyone a bit."
Amazingly he had only bought the winning ticket nine minutes before the draw closed on Wednesday night. A last-minute decision to nip to the shop resulted in this giant win. Joseph explains:
"I knew it was late as the newsagent looked at the clock when I asked for the ticket. It must have been fate. I shouldn’t have gone out, and still don’t know why I got up and decided to go."
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