The family who won the staggering €250 million (around £216 million) Euromillions jackpot from Cork have revealed that they don’t plan to change certain aspects of their lives. The ticket was bought as part of a family syndicate, officials have confirmed, and the family is believed to be from the north of the Irish city. Rumours quickly swirled as to who won the massive sum, and the family eventually decided to stay anonymous, but they did reveal how they were approaching their new life with this money.
“It will still be Ham and Cheese sambos [Irish term for a sandwich] for lunch,” one family joked as they explained how they plan to stay down to earth following the monumental win. The sum marks Ireland’s biggest ever Euromillions win. Despite the massive win, the family says that they plan to stay in Ireland. Among their ideas for the money is property abroad and foreign holidays. Another family member joked: “I’ll still be having my favourite ham and cheese sambo for lunch every day!” The ticket was purchased last month in a shop in the centre of Cork City.
One of the family members had an appointment in Cork and stopped into Clifford’s Centra on Shandon Street to do some shopping.” I saw the sign at the till that the EuroMillions jackpot was €250 million,” they revealed.
“Although I’m a regular player, I hadn’t bought a ticket for the last two draws. I picked one up and honestly, didn’t think much of it.”
They continued: “I was watching the Nine O’Clock News and saw that someone in Ireland had the winning EuroMillions ticket. So naturally, I got my ticket and scanned it on the National Lottery app, and a message popped up, ‘You’ve won big, contact the National Lottery.’
“Obviously, this wasn’t a message that I was used to seeing, so I must have checked it 4 more times, I just couldn’t believe my eyes!”
They added: “I ran upstairs to my wife, who had just gone to bed, and woke her up. We both checked the numbers multiple times on the website. We sat at the edge of the bed, saying ‘Oh my god ’ over and over – I reckon we said it about fifty times. We were in total shock, complete disbelief.
“As you can imagine, sleep was out of the question that night”. They called the National Lottery in Ireland the next morning asn were put through to the Claims Team. After a few minutes on hold, they were finally told that they had indeed won the sum.
A family member said: “Those few minutes felt like the longest of my life. When Ronan from the Claims Team confirmed we were the outright winner, needless to say, we were in total shock all over again.”
They kept the ticket carefully hidden under folded laundry until it was time to bring it into the National Lottery. Then, they immediately sought legal and financial advice.
They revealed: “We’re absolutely going on a family holiday. We love to travel and there’s so many amazing trips we’ve always dreamed of that we can now make a reality. We’re already looking at holiday homes somewhere in the sun. We also feel incredibly fortunate now to be in a position where we can buy homes for our children, too.”