Builder who won £105m EuroMillions jackpot looking forward to ‘a good Christmas’ - but won't give up job
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Martha Fairlie
A builder who has won the £105 million EuroMillions jackpot said “it’s going to be a good Christmas” but pledged he would not give up his job.
Father-of-three Steve Thomson said he felt like he was having a heart attack when he realised he had the winning numbers on his Lucky Dip ticket to claim the £105,100,701.90 prize.
The 42-year-old and his wife Lenka said the priority would be buying a new house with a bedroom each for their daughter and their two sons, who currently share in a “shoebox” three-bedroom house in Selsey, West Sussex.
Mr Thomson said: “Everyone is going to have a good Christmas. Not sure what we are going to do, I am not cooking, Mum is not cooking, Lenka is not cooking.
“Christmas will be good this year, it really will.”
Describing the moment he realised he had won, Mr Thomson said: “I was a shaking, gibbering wreck. I walked round the living room a few times, I went out to the van, I went back in, it was five minutes of madness then I decided to go and tell Lenka.”
Mr Thomson pledged to be “sensibly generous” with his windfall and added: “It’s so much money, I am going to be generous. I live in a small village, I do not want to leave the village, whatever I can do for the village, I will.
“I have to be sensibly generous. I still can’t get my head around it, one (million) would have done but I have got 105, it’s just amazing.”
Mr Thomson said he had barely slept in the four days since finding out he had won and added: “We are going to do a lot of good with this, it’s too much for us, we can do a lot with it.”
Mrs Thomson, a shop worker originally from Slovakia, said: “It’s life-changing for the family. It’s so emotional.”
She said the priority was getting a house with a room for each of the children as well as a holiday.
The 41-year-old, who met Mr Thomson while working at a campsite in 2002, added: “The biggest thing at the moment is the house, it’s our dream come true where they can have their own room and space.”
Describing his children’s reactions, Mr Thomson said: “My eldest’s reaction, he’s a very sensible kid, he said, ‘Dad, can I have my own room?’. I said, ‘No problem, of course you can son’.
“My middle son said, ‘Can I have a Tesla’, and my daughter asked for a pink iPhone and she’s going to get that.”
Mr Thomson said he decided to go public so he did not have to hide and added: “I am not going to flutter it away, at the end of the day I am still Steve, I do not want to change, we are just financially better off and so will a number of other people.”
He added that he would complete all of his outstanding jobs fitting windows and conservatories.
He said: “Once I am over the shock I will need to keep doing something. I am not the type just to sit still.
“My business partner knows that if he needs a hand I’ll be there.”
Mr Thomson’s winning ticket had the numbers 08, 10, 15, 30 and 42 with Lucky Stars 04 and 06, and was bought at East Beach Post Office and Candy Store in Selsey for the draw on the 25th anniversary of the National Lottery on November 19.