Alex Robertson was so sure that he would never be leaving Corby that when his passport expired he did not have the heart the renew it. But then he won the EuroMillions and his life changed overnight.
Part of a 12-person bus driver syndicate that won a share of the £38,034,639.70 jackpot last Friday, he is now planning to take his 78-year-old mother to Australia to see her twin.
“I let my passport lapse as I never thought I’d be getting out of Corby again,” Mr Robertson, 57, said today as eleven members of the syndicate went public with their win.
“She said she’d need to save up the money, but I said you’ve no need to do now.”
Many Corby lives were changed by the win last week. Mr Robertson, a father of four, also has 16 grandchildren. Charles Gillion, 64, has three children, ten grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
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“It just means no stresses any more, no worries, our families are all sorted,” Jim Paton, 55, and his brother-in-law Dave Mead, 54, said. “It’s a dream. No more worries about bills.”
Each member of the syndicate - all but one of whom decided to go public - will win just over £3.1 million.
Three of the bus drivers, who all work for Stagecoach, have already handed in their notice, and, unsurprisingly, none of the syndicate made it into work on Saturday. They declined to comment on reports that one of their colleagues had dropped out of the syndicate six months ago.
John Drew, their manager, said the win had left quite a few gaps in their rota, but said he was “over the moon and ecstatic for each and every one” of the winners.
The drivers - aged between 34 and 64, some of whom have worked for Stagecoach for 20 years - said variously that they would be spending their winnings on new cars, holidays, a bungalow, and - more modestly - a climbing frame for their children.
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One said he would buy his wife Jean “whatever she wanted” and would swap his Nissan Primera for an Aston Martin.
Charles Connors, 40, a father of four, said winning was both “surreal” and “scary”.
“But I am working class lad - I am not going to turn into some Lord Fauntleroy,” he said. “We will just have to take each day as it comes.”
The winning lottery ticket was bought from Premier Stores in Boden Close, Corby, and the numbers were 3, 4, 12, 23, 50 and Lucky Stars 4 and 7.