A man from Wales has been left “blown away” after becoming the Postcode Lottery’s biggest winner, taking home over £1.2 million, revealing how his stepfather predicted his jackpot win the day before.
Kevin Jones, 58, scooped a record £1,210,914 in the lottery’s monthly Postcode Millions draw for January, saying the “life-changing” moment still hasn’t sunk in.
However, his jackpot win may have been written in the stars after Mr Jones’s stepfather, 79-year-old John Davies, called him the day before to tell him he would win big, saying: “It’s your turn now.”
“I was honestly expecting £1,000 and when they pulled out the ticket from the envelope and I saw the first three numbers, then I saw the other three numbers – it totally blew me away,” Mr Jones, from Llandrindod Wells, Powys, told the PA news agency.
“I’m still shocked, I don’t really know how to feel, it just won’t go in.
“My (stepfather) said to me yesterday, ‘get a Bentley and show them’ and I said, ‘I’m only going to get a grand, or a couple of grand at the most’.
“But he said, ‘no, it’s your turn now’.”
The father-of-three won the mammoth jackpot after being the only player in the full winning postcode of LD1 5HR.
He purchased three tickets, each worth £403,638, which allowed him to triple his winnings.
“I totally forgot about the other two tickets,” he said.
“It’s going from one extreme to the other, going from living day by day, hand to mouth, to this extreme.”
Mr Jones said he first plans to purchase a car with the money, as well as going on a cruise around the Caribbean to get some sunshine.
“I need a car and I need to buy a place to live at some point,” he said.
“I was sitting thinking last night, what am I going to do to wake myself up, so I’ll get a car and I’ll probably go on holiday.
“A Caribbean cruise I was thinking for a month so I can have a think about what I want to do.”
He added that he “doesn’t want to spend any more money than I have to”, saying that if he were to buy a property, it would be a two-bedroom bungalow.
“This money will change my life but I don’t think it will change me as a person,” he said.
Mr Jones added that he hopes more people get involved with the Postcode Lottery as he first started playing to help out local charities.
“The reason I did the Postcode Lottery is because you don’t think you’re ever going to win,” he said.
“The other thing about it is you know the money is going to a lot of local, small charities.
“I’ve always said that people need to get into it.
“Even winning a small prize can help a lot of people.”
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