The unemployed digger driver from Co Derry who won £4.5 million on the UK lottery last weekend said today he will use the money to buy his first house.
Seamus Duffy (49), a father-of-six from Greysteel, was the only winner of Saturday’s Lotto jackpot. He has not been able to work for the last year because of arthritis.
“I have been walking around in a daze, just trying to take it in,” he said. “I have never had a house of my own, I will buy a new house in the country.”
Mr Duffy said he could not believe it when he read the numbers off the television in the early hours of Sunday.
“Everything went into a daze as I was looking at it, I was looking at the TV all night.”
He awoke his partner Carmel from her sleep and asked her to check the numbers.
“It still hasn’t sunk in, I just need to go away and think about what we are doing,” he added. “I don’t want to change my life all together and change my personality.”
The winning ticket was purchased in a Spar shop in Garvagh, Co Derry.
Mr Duffy added: “I didn’t even realise it, I am walking about the same way as I was, I can’t grasp it.”
In 2004 Belfast woman Iris Jeffrey became the UK’s biggest single lottery winner when she matched all six number to take home £20.1 million. Former east Belfast bus driver Peter Lavery won more than £10 million in 1996.
PA