John and Carol Reddy are ecstatic after matching five numbers in the EuroMillions draw on 21st August and winning £445,440.80. The romantic pair has decided to celebrate by having their marriage re-blessed with their 12 year old daughter serving as their bridesmaid.
Carol, 47, who has been married to John for 20 years and works as a receptionist in the accident and emergency department at the Countess of Chester Hospital, said: “We have been married for 20 years this year and have always wanted to have our marriage blessed abroad.
“Our daughter has always wanted to be a bridesmaid too. Now we can finally make these dreams happen.”
Their win came at the perfect time as the couple were just about to ask John’s parents if they could borrow some money to refurbish their home.
Far from being extravagant, one of the first purchases the couple will be making is for doors for garages in Chester.
47 year old self-employed purchasing consultant John said: “We had been decorating the house and had almost finished but desperately needed a new garage door as the existing one just looked totally out of place with all of the work which we had been doing.
“There was no way we were going to be able to afford a new door at the moment and we had already borrowed money from Carol’s parents to help pay for a holiday.
“My parents had kindly offered to lend us the money for the new garage door to enable all of our house refurbishments to be completed. Now we do not have to worry about borrowing money or having to pay money back – we can do all of this and have our new garage door at the same time.”
They are also planning on spending their winnings on a Mercedes SLK convertible for John and a designer bag for Carol.
John said: “I have to admit when I received the email notification telling me I had won I thought it was all a big wind up. I called the number on the back of the ticket and had to ask the lady in the office about 10 times if this was real.”
“I still cannot believe it is really me who has won. I have to keep pinching myself to make me believe that this has really happened.
“Meanwhile, Carol has been going through a whole range of emotions, from crying, to shaking and then literally running around the house totally ecstatic.”
The sensible pair have said that the plan to continue working and will definitely keep playing the lottery.
John added: “This is a lovely sum of money to win. It takes away any future financial worries and just makes us far more comfortable and in a position to be able to help and support our children and family.”