Thunderball Winner Treats Friends To A Break
By admin
Issued on behalf of the National Lottery
Power line worker, Michael Neilson (50), is the most popular member of The Cosmo Club in Pontygwaith, now that he is going to treat seven of his friends to a summer holiday in Benidorm – after winning the £250,000 Thunderball jackpot last Saturday (5 May 2007).
Michael said: “We already had the holiday to Benidorm booked for September. Now I’ve won this money, I’ve decided to treat everyone. We are all really looking forward to it.”
Apart from taking his friends on holiday, Michael is still deciding what to do with the rest of his windfall – although he says he will be treating fiancée, Erica (47), to whatever she wants. Michael realised he was £250,000 richer at 2am on Sunday morning, after coming in from a night out at the Club.
Michael commented: “I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to lie on the couch. Erica thought there was something wrong, so she got up to come and see what I was doing. We decided to check the Thunderball numbers on Teletext. When I saw that I’d won the Thunderball prize, I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. My mind was whirring.”
He added: “Money isn’t that important to me, it’s family and friends that count. I’m going to spend some of the winnings, but put the majority away. It will be a nice feeling to have that much money in my account.”
Michael is the fifth National Lottery winner in South Wales in the last month. Susan Davies from Pembroke Dock won £95,476 on 21 April, after matching five numbers plus the bonus ball on Lotto – while most recently, Joanne Gilbert from Abertillery scooped a £1.1 million jackpot on 28 April.
Michael bought his winning Thunderball ticket, which was a Lucky Dip®, at the Tesco Extra store in Rainham – while working away from home in Essex. The winning Thunderball numbers on Saturday 5 May were 15, 19, 26, 27, 28, and the Thunderball was 9.
Tonight’s (Friday 11 May) EuroMillions Rollover jackpot is an estimated £35 million, while tomorrow’s (Saturday 12 May) Lotto jackpot is an estimated £2.5 million. Every Lotto play slip now comes with its own Dream Number – it is up to players to mark ‘yes’ to give their Dream Number its chance of winning up to £500,000, or choose a Lucky Dip®.
