Britain's biggest lottery winners: Couple scoop £56m jackpot

Bubbling over: Nigel Page, 43, and his partner Justine Laycock, 41, toast Britain’s biggest lottery win in champagne today
Alistair Foster12 April 2012

The winners of Britain's biggest lottery prize today told how they celebrated joining the ranks of the super-rich with bacon sandwiches.

Nigel Page, 43, and his estate agent partner Justine Laycock, 41, won £56 million in the EuroMillions draw. Mr Page, who runs a property maintenance firm, said he was "shaking and couldn't speak" when he realised he had matched all six numbers.

The couple from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, were unveiled at a press conference in Bath this afternoon and are now in 980th place on Britain's rich list. Sky-diving enthusiast Mr Page had joked to his daughter that he could be the winner early on Saturday.

He said: "I'd already checked my National Lottery account and had seen I'd won £55 on the Lotto when I decided to buy two lucky dips for the big EuroMillions jackpot on Friday. I didn't think about it again until Saturday morning when I was watching the news with my daughter and saw that there was one UK winner who shared the jackpot with a ticket in Spain. I remember even joking it might be me. I logged on to my account and saw the Lotto win for £55 in my account and just below it was the £56 million EuroMillions prize.

"I started shaking and couldn't speak. I just kept looking at it on the screen in front of me but I couldn't say a word."

Mr Page, who has been with his partner Ms Laycock for eight years, then went upstairs to wake her.

She said: "I knew something was up as Nigel never wakes me up on a Saturday morning and he looked so worried. All he said was I need you urgently. I need to show you something'.

"I thought something awful had happened but he took me to the computer and there it was on the screen.

"His hands were shaking so much, he couldn't pick up the phone so I called the lottery line and they confirmed it was true. We were the £56 million winners.

"It's so strange as I'd been out the night before with friends and as I'd bought a ticket as well we'd been talking about what we thought would happen if you won. I joked that the machine would explode, smoke would come out from it with ticker-tape and glitter and six gold-painted Egyptian men would come out and carry me off. It was slightly different."

They went for bacon sandwiches at the café in a branch of Waitrose while they waited for the Camelot adviser to arrive. Ms Laycock said: "Camelot told us an adviser was on their way so while we waited we decided to go out and have some breakfast together as a family. It sounds bizarre but we just felt very calm."

The couple have three children from previous relationships — Mr Page's daughter Ella, 12, and Ms Laycock's son and daughter, Jacob, 11, and Georgia, 15. Mrs Laycock said the children had remained "very level-headed" and had "not asked for much at all".

She added that Georgia had reacted like a "typical teenager", saying, "Whatever", when she heard the news.

"They've joked about a tarantula and getting Ella a little Shetland pony so her feet can run on the ground by the side while she's riding it but that's it." Mr Page is planning to trade in his white van for a BMW X5 or Range Rover.

The couple shared a £113 million jackpot with the holder of one other ticket. This was bought in the Spanish coastal town of Mojacar, where there are many British residents. This winner had not come forward.

The payout is tax free and eclipses the £91 million that was split between jobless Les Scadding, 58, from Newport, South Wales, and a syndicate of seven Liverpudlian call centre workers last year.

Mr Scadding said today: "We wish the new winners all the very best and hope they enjoy their new lifestyle as much as we do ours."

Mr Page is a member of his local sky diving club in South Cerney. He said: "I've jumped out of a plane at 12,000 feet but that's nothing compared to how I'm feeling now.

"I've been a sky diving fan for many years and I would love to set up my own indoor sky-diving centre. There are only three in the country and I plan to use some of the win to set up the first one in the South West." The couple plan to buy a new house but want to stay in the Cirencester area and hope to use their win to travel.

Ms Laycock said: "It would be lovely to get a five or six-bedroom house with a pool and lots of space but we really enjoy the area we live in now so we won't move far. We'd also like to buy somewhere abroad where we can go on holiday."

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