A LORRY driver quit his job in “minutes” after realising he had won a mouth-watering lotto jackpot.
Lorry-driving Tony Hedley was in the middle of a shift when his wife Christine phoned him with some lucky news.
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Newcastle based Tony, 68, had worked as a lorry driver for over four decades and while on shift – in what would be his last – his wife Christine video called him.
After pulling over, Christine, 65, told him they had won two prizes of £166,666, making a grand total of £333,000 and prompting Tony to give his boss a bell.
Minutes later he was on the phone to his gaffer confirming that he would be binning his career and taking a much-needed rest after years on the road.
Tony, said: “It was just surreal, it was like the weight had lifted off my shoulders.
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“When I finished the call with the Postcode Lottery, I phoned up work and said ‘when I come back, I’m not coming in tomorrow and this is my last shift’.
“I got back to the base, dropped the trailer off and my manager said, ‘you lucky sod’, shook my hand and wished me all the best.”
His teaching-assistant wife Christine was the lucky one out of the pair that answered the life-changing door knock – and couldn’t help but burst into tears knowing their life had just changed forever.
She added: “When I pulled the ticket out, I couldn’t believe it, I just cried.
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“I never thought it would be that big.
“It’s still unbelievable, I wake up in the morning and think ‘did I dream that?'”
I see lottery tickets being bought every day – I’d recommend same scratch card everytime, there’s ‘little risk’
Now, the senior couple – who are grandparents-of-four – have a list of money-splashing plans to celebrate the occasion.
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
First on their list is some home improvements, but they’re also planning on making sure their two children, grandchildren, and on-the-way great-grandchild are well looked after.
Christine, added: “We’re not the type to go out on spending sprees and we don’t ask for much out of life.
“I think the first thing is to make sure the kids are alright and get somebody in to do the gardens and bathroom and renovate the house a bit.
“And then we’ll think about it after that and just take things slowly.
“It’s lovely to know that we can just relax and live life for us now.”
But a big money win always calls for a holiday – and the Hedleys are already putting pen to paper for a well deserved family getaway to Pitlochry, Scotland, in August.
Tony, said: “These kinds of things don’t happen to people like us.”
And quickly clapping back, Christine, added: “Well, they do now.”
Big money winners are popping up all over the country – and every year we watch on as Brits open life-changing envelopes playing The Postcode Lottery – banking thousands of pounds.
But not everyone is quite as lucky as the Hedleys, and some mistakenly think they’ve won only to realise things were not as they seemed the following day.
Sad dad Nathan thought he’d snagged a £50,000 lotto jackpot – only to find out a day later that he had won far less.
And Supermarket worker Dean Smethurst, 32, boasted to his friends and family about the mammoth win before he learnt the truth.
While a TikToker thought she had scooped a cool £1million until she realised she had won less than £1.
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