Couple from Pendle and supporters of BK's Heroes win £61M on EuroMillions Lottery

Richard and Debbie Nuttall, who are both 54, desperately drove round the Canary island searching for a decent mobile signal so they could confirm they had one of the two winning tickets that shared the £123M EuroMillions jackpot in the draw on Tuesday, January 30th.

The couple were enjoying a week-long holiday to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, when they discovered the news. Richard said:“It was the second day of our holiday and I had got up early to finish off a bit of work. I noticed the email from The National Lottery stating that there was ‘exciting news about your ticket’. So I checked my National Lottery account and saw the balance had gone up and we’d won £2.60.

“Fair enough. I shut my laptop, had breakfast and then we set off for the day, driving around the island. We enjoyed the sea views, blue skies and windsurfers before heading back. It was early afternoon when we spotted another email saying we should check our account. I thought it was odd and there must be a glitch in the system to get a duplicate email but I logged in again to my National Lottery account to check. We were totally stunned, it said we had won over £61M!

Richard added: “We just couldn’t make sense of it. My first thought was it must be a scam or there was some mix up. I know it sounds crazy but we couldn’t think straight. I tried calling The National Lottery’s number but my mobile phone signal was poor and the call just kept dropping. “So I WhatsApped the family chat group asking for one of our daughters to call us urgently. My youngest came back quickly and we asked her to log into our National Lottery account from the UK and double-check. She put in my details and then just kept repeating ’oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!’

“It must be real, this was the official National Lottery website we were all looking at.”

Richard and Debbie called The National Lottery twice more but the calls kept dropping due to the poor signal in the hotel. The couple couldn't wait any longer so grabbed the hire car keys and started driving around the island to find a stronger signal. Richard said:, ”We must have looked a right sight, Deb was holding the phone as high as she could, checking the number of bars as I drove. She started shouting ‘stop here, stop here!’ and I pulled over on a verge.”

But the road to discovering they were multi-millionaires was still not plain sailing. Richard said: “We finally got through to The National Lottery and we were in the middle of answering security questions when unbelievably there was a man tapping at my window. We were politely trying to tell him to go away, pointing at the mobile phone to indicate we were busy but he kept on tapping. Frustratingly, he wanted to park his bus in our spot on the verge and wouldn't give up. By this point my stress levels were through the roof.

“I had to ask the lady on the phone to give me a few minutes to move my car, hoping the signal didn’t drop in the meantime.We continued with the call, the lady checked with her manager and then came back on the line to say - and I’ll never forget these words - ‘So, I need to get this right…I can confirm you are the winners of the £61,708,321 EuroMillions jackpot prize!’”

“Well, by this time me and Debs are going mental…jumping up and down in our car seats, punching the air, thumping the dashboard…the car must have been rocking...it was the whole Delboy and Rodney scene when they finally became millionaires outside Sotheby's.”

At the time of discovering their win, the couple were two days into their week-long holiday in Fuerteventura. Richard had always wanted to visit the island to watch the windsurfers in action as he had competed in the sport as a teenager. Richard explained: “This trip had always been on my bucket list as I loved windsurfing from a young age. I was very lucky to have been supported by my amazing parents in order to compete on the national circuit when I was a teen and I have always wanted to travel to the island and witness the surfing there with my own eyes. “However, we just couldn't settle once the news of our win had been confirmed. We were now multi-millionaires!”

Back at the hotel the pair decided they would fly home and found a flight heading back to the UK the next day. Once back on British soil, and as The National Lottery security checks and validation process took place, the couple began to plan how they might enjoy their new found fortune. Top of the list for Richard and Debbie is a new family home, still in their beloved Lancashire, where they can host big family Christmas get-togethers. The couple are also planning for a holiday home in Portugal and hope to visit soon to start their search.

But, it’s early retirement that is going to make the biggest impact on the pair’s lives in the short term. Debbie has already handed in her notice at her civil engineering job where she works as a bidding and estimating support assistant.

Richard is self-employed, having run his own accountancy business for more than 20 years. As a bookkeeper and management accountant with a number of clients, he is now in the process of informing them that he doesn't plan to work beyond the end of this tax year. Richard said: “Obviously I am not going to leave anyone in the lurch - my clients have been fantastic and loyal to me and I will of course do their payroll if they are stuck. They are being very understanding but I am looking to wind things up as soon as possible and finally take it easy.”

The couple are also looking forward to enjoying their new found free time. Richard is planning to play more golf, both in the UK and abroad, and even has a ‘Golf Swing Room’ on his wishlist at the new house; whilst Debbie hankers after a bigger garden, a greenhouse and extra land for Monty the dog to enjoy. Richard has already made his first purchase of a brand new BMW X5, which was selected for its extra large boot, big enough to transport his golf clubs.

Richard said: “It’s crazy to think that just five weeks ago, we had been looking to downsize to a small bungalow to live out the next few years. £We even found one nearby that needed a lot of work and were considering an offer. Now we are very much upsizing, with plenty of land for Debbie and the dog to enjoy. Our lives are going to be so different. We have worked hard all our lives and we are now very much looking forward to taking life a bit easier. But not just that, this win will also change the lives of those closest to us, and hopefully the next generation after that too.”

Richard and Debbie also have a charity close to their hearts, for which they are ambassadors and plan to continue to support, called BK’S Heroes. The charity was set up in their nephew Ben King’s memory after he died of a rare condition, Tubular Interstitial Nephritis and Uveitis, at age 27. The whole family support the charity which aims to raise awareness of brain cancer and kidney disease as well as raising funds for research into prevention and treatment of these illnesses.

Richard said: “This charity means so much to our family and we are all involved. It was originally set up to raise funds for the ward where Ben was so brilliantly cared for but we have gone on to raise much more. Ben was such an inspiration to all of us. He was incredibly brave and positive throughout his treatment and it was his wish for this charity to be set up to do what it can to help lives in the future.”