A lucky couple from Warrington with five children are planning their first ever holiday abroad as a family after scooping a £100,000 top prize on a National Lottery scratchcard.
Mark and Carmel Cousins bought the Monopoly Scratchcard, from National Lottery GameStore, whilst out doing the weekly shop and are now planning on how to spend their winnings.
Top of this wish list is booking a family trip abroad to enjoy some sun, sea and sand. They are also looking forward to extending their family home, which will allow for the four children living at home to each have their own bedroom.
Mark, aged 48, a school maintenance officer, says the win just doesn’t seem real. He said: “We are so happy and the news is still sinking in. We can’t quite believe that we’ve won and it means we can do several things that we’d only ever dreamt of doing before, including our first family holiday abroad!”
Talking about the moment they found out, Mark said: “My wife and daughter were with me shopping in Asda one evening and we decided to get a scratchcard. Between the two of them they chose the Monopoly Scratchcard and my wife scratched it in the car on the way home.
“Carmel then said she thought we’d won so I stopped at the nearest shop to check. When the lady there passed it back to me and said to call Camelot, we just couldn’t believe it!”
Family man Mark continued: “When we rang and got confirmation of the win we were both in tears, it was just a fantastic feeling. We told the children and the rest of our family that day and I took them all for a nice meal to celebrate in style.
“One thing we decided straight away is that we’ll go on a holiday abroad with the kids as we’ve never been able to afford to take them all, it’s a dream come true. We usually go to places like Cornwall because it’s so expensive to take all of us away, so we are very excited to be able to book a trip of a lifetime. The children are ecstatic and cannot wait to go on a plane for the first time.”
Home improvements are also high on Mark and Carmel’s to do list, Mark explained: “We also want to extend our house, we really love it here but the children are a bit cramped so it will allow them to have a bit more room which will be great. I have just fitted a new kitchen or I would have paid someone else to do that as well!”
Mark added: “Things like this just don’t happen to people like us, we feel so lucky, this really is life changing for our whole family.”
Mark and Carmel’s winning Monopoly Scratchcard was bought at the Asda store in the Cockhedge Centre in Warrington. The Monopoly Scratchcard offers a 1 in 4.24 overall chance of winning a prize. The card costs £2 and prizes range from £2 up to the top prize of £100,000.
GameStore is the new home of scratchcards and online Instant Win Games from The National Lottery, offering players many different and exciting ways to play and win life changing prizes.
The National Lottery changes the lives of winners like Mark and Carmel as well as communities across the UK – players raise, on average, over £34m for National Lottery-funded projects every week. In Mark and Carmel’s native Warrington alone there have been more than 822 individual National Lottery grants made to date, funding projects across the arts, sports, heritage, health, education, environment, charity and voluntary sectors.
In Mark and Carmel’s own back yard of Warrington National Lottery funding has helped:
•Culture Warrington’s Pyramid to radically transform two disused buildings into Pyramid, a cutting edge centre for the arts which opened in 2002. It was the catalyst in creating Warrington’s Cultural Quarter and for the physical regeneration of the town centre.
•Heritage Family Support, a voluntary organisation that provides practical support and advice to families in Warrington. The funding from The National Lottery has allowed it to provide more services to help the community learn about living healthier and more fulfilled lives.
Looking forward to their first family holiday abroad – Mark and Carmel Cousins
