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Is this Britain’s luckiest national lottery shop?

LOWE’S Newsagents in Burnage could well be the luckiest shop in the whole country.

Not only did owner Rod Lowe sell a lottery ticket to an anonymous £5 million winner, he has also flogged a £330,000 winning ticket, and each week forks out over £1,000 in smaller payments.

And although it may be a much smaller amount, Jim and Kathleen Corrigan have now scooped £68,576, after buying a ticket from Lowe’s every week for 10-and-a-half years.

Rod said: “I am delighted for them. They have already bought their ticket for this week’s draw.”

He joked: “They are quite greedy really, they don’t know when to stop.”

He added: ‘It’s hard to say if we’re the luckiest shop. We may even have had more but Camelot will only tell us we have had a big winner if the person has ticked the publicity box. We’ve also had big winners on the scratchcards. A few years ago someone from the Milestone pub won £50,000.”

With such a big win under your belt most people would splash out on a luxury holiday, a slap-up celebratory feast, a new car or even a sizable deposit on a des-res home.

But not Burnage couple Jim and Kathleen - instead they are planning to lay a new driveway, and say they will still go on a family package holiday to Benidorm in October, which has been booked for months.

Security

The pensioners, married for 49 years, say the money won’t change their lives, but it will give them security and allow them to treat their two daughters, Ann Corrigan, who lives in Ireland, Lisa Pennington, who also lives in Burnage, and their six-year-old grandchild Daniel.

Jim, 74, said: “We are still suffering from shock. We have never had this amount of spare cash in our lives. But I don’t think it will make the slightest difference to us, we are not the type.”

Kathleen, 75, said: “We are not used to it, nothing like this has ever happened to us. We are a bit overwhelmed really.”

For Jim, a former cable joiner and foreman, and Kathleen, a former bond knife cutter for children’s clothes, Saturday, August 27, seemed like any other as they sat at home watching Dale Winton host the Lotto Draw.

Jim said: “As Dale was about to start Kathleen turned to the TV and said, ‘Come on Dale, make it a good one for us tonight.”

The Gods must have been smiling on the couple because Jim added: “As the numbers were being drawn, Kathleen said: ‘We’ve got four’.

“I got up and found the ticket and couldn’t contain myself when I saw we had matched five numbers and the bonus ball.

“We really couldn’t believe it so we switched on Teletext to check again and found out how much we had won.”

Both beside themselves with excitement, the couple called their daughters immediately. Lisa, 35, said: “My mum never swears but she said ‘Bleedin’ hell, I think we’ve got five numbers and the bonus ball’.”

The win is a welcome bit of luck for the couple whose granddaughter Emily died a few years ago after developing leukaemia. Lisa, who now fundraises for cancer charities, said: “As long as mum and dad are happy that’s all that matters.”