A 73-year-old grandfather who scooped £25m in one of Britain’s biggest lottery wins will not let the prize go to his head, he has said. Brian Caswell and his wife Joan, 71, from Bolton, were joint winners of the Euromillions lottery jackpot.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Caswell said the cash would pay for a “flash car” and a trip to Rio, Brazil. And the keen gardener said he would also hire a professional to help grow some carrots on his allotment. A member of his local allotment society in Bolton, Mr Caswell said he had been trying to grow the vegetables on his patch of land “without success”.
When he scanned the ticket his mouth dropped open and he went a little ashen Brian Caswell on his local shopkeeper’s reaction to his win “I’ve followed every instruction in the book and never had any success,” he said. “What I’m going to do now is bring a professional in and say, right, sort that out.” The Caswells, who recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, spoke of their good fortune at a press conference in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
Mr Caswell revealed that his local shopkeeper broke the news of his win after he went in to check his ticket. Friends said Mr Caswell had “worked hard his whole life” He said: “I had won £10 the week before so walked in all confident and said to the lad ‘I’m on a roll – here’s another winner’. “When he scanned the ticket his mouth dropped open and he went a little ashen. “I didn’t have my glasses on so I couldn’t even read the numbers on the ticket he gave me, so I headed home to get it into focus.” The new multi-millionaire rang his daughter to help him contact lottery operator Camelot, which confirmed the family had won £24,951,269. They were “dumbstruck”, said Mr Caswell. After discovering their win on Saturday, Mr Caswell tried to stay calm with a trip to his allotment on Sunday. It will transform all our lives and it is a lovely feeling to know that we can help out all the people close to our hearts Brian Caswell Rumours of a local winner were circulating and he overheard gardeners joking that the winner would not be “up here digging the soil”.
The couple said they wanted to move to a farm with stables and properties for their two daughters, Helen, 48, and Angela, 44, their partners and four grandchildren. Mr Caswell said: “This is a family win. Both my daughters are horse fanatics and would love to have a house with a stable. “It will transform all our lives and it is a lovely feeling to know that we can help out all the people close to our hearts.” Mrs Caswell said she was still in shock and needed time to consider their windfall. “It takes time to adjust, I can’t quite believe it,” she said. “Usually, it’s us watching other people like this on the television but now it’s other people watching us.”
Mr Caswell helps to run the Harpers Lane Allotment Society in Bolton, while his wife is a former bookbinder. They have four grandchildren. The win makes Mr and Mrs Caswell the third biggest UK lottery winners. Angela Kelly, from Glasgow, scooped £35.4m in August 2007 and another winner in the same month won £26.5m but did not go public.
Original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8102282.stm
