Missed the bus – but became a millionaire!

The general assistant at a local hotel popped to the shop while waiting for the next bus to arrive after dropping his son home.

Richard from Doncaster said, “I thought I’d treat myself to a Scratchcard. I walked out of the shop and started scratching the second game panel when I glanced down and saw that the symbols matched and they were worth £1 million.”

His reaction was immediate, “I ran back inside and thrust the card at the girl behind the counter – I think she thought I’d lost my mind as I could barely speak and must have looked like a madman! She ran it through the system and sure enough the instructions said that I had to contact Camelot so I knew that something huge had just happened.”

Shell-shocked Richard went out into the street and immediately called his mother, Sarah, who didn’t believe her ecstatic son and promptly told him to get his win verified before getting too excited.

“I did as I was told and rang the hotline straight away,” said Richard. “It was the most agonising few moments of my life, but when they confirmed that I had scooped the jackpot, I started whooping and shouting, forgetting it was Sunday afternoon and I was standing at a bus stop acting like a lunatic!”

The bus took Richard to work at the hotel where he has worked and lived for the past four years, with the Scratchcard safely tucked in his uniform pocket, “I kept checking it was there every five seconds – it’s not every day you have a piece of paper on you that’s worth a million pounds!”

With the money now safely in the bank, Richard has wasted no time in handing in his notice at The Campanile. He continued: “I absolutely love working here but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m very lucky to now be able to take a step back from work for a while. Most of my family live down South so I’d like to look at buying a house closer to them – having lived in a hotel for many years, it will be amazing to have my own front door!

“I’m also a bit of a car fanatic and would like to splash out on some new wheels. And as I haven’t had a holiday in over ten years, I think I’ll be heading to the sunshine in the next few weeks – an exotic cruise around the Caribbean or somewhere like the Maldives would be amazing.”

Aside from some extravagant new purchases, Richard is also looking to the future, “This win won’t just change my life – it will change my son’s too. He’s only seven so is too young to understand at the moment but knows that something exciting has happened to Daddy. To be in a position where I can set money aside for his education is the best feeling in the world – it fills me with absolute joy to know that he will be able to have a head start in life. I’m walking around in a blissful daze – 2015 is going to be the best year of my life and I think I must be the happiest man alive!”

Richard won on The National Lottery Merry Millionare Scratchcard.