70-year-old Lottery winner celebrates with game of bowls after winning £1million

A bowls fan has celebrated winning £1 million on the National Lottery by having a surprise game with double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Alex Marshall.

James Roy, 70, from Shotts, North Lanarkshire, scooped the prize in the Lotto Millionaire raffle game on October 10.

Father-of-three Mr Roy bought a lucky dip ticket from his local Co-op on the day of the draw and found out about his win the following morning.

While celebrating on the green with bowling legend “Tattie” and wife Mary, retired Mr Roy shared his disbelief at discovering he was a millionaire.

He said: “I turned on the TV to check my numbers and I don’t know how many times I read them over to make sure I was right.

“I ran down the stairs to tell Mary, then the first thing I did was phone my eldest daughter Agnes and ask her to check the numbers for me as well.

“I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do. We went back to the Co-op in Shotts where I bought the ticket and the assistant scanned it on the machine.

“Obviously they couldn’t pay out £1 million – they handed me back my ticket and a slip with the phone number on it.

“Once the ticket had been verified, we took it to my sister and brother-in-law’s house, and they kept it in their safe for us.”

The couple will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on hogmanay and Mr Roy said he was looking forward to buying their current home outright.

He added: “We’ve been living in our house for 30 years and now we will finally be able to buy it.

“Mary struggles to get about, so we will put in a stairlift and a walk-in shower which will make things so much easier for her.

“I’m 70, so I won’t be buying a fancy sports car but I will buy myself a new set of bowls.

“It’s an amazing feeling to know we can walk into a shop and just buy what we want – we couldn’t do that before.

“The bowling club always holds a new year party, so we will be celebrating our anniversary there with 16 of our friends. We won’t be splashing out on a big party but I will treat Mary to a new ring.”

Mr Roy was one of 25 Lotto Millionaire raffle game winners on October 10.