Pensioner whose wife told him to stop buying National Lottery tickets scoops £18 MILLION
AN 87-YEAR-OLD man who scooped an £18million jackpot on the National Lottery told yesterday how his wife had urged him to stop buying tickets – because they never won anything.
Dennis Banfield kept on having a flutter anyway, joking that it was “only a matter of time” before he and Shirley, 83, won their fortune.
And their dream of making their grown-up children “financially secure forever” finally came true with a single £2 Lucky Dip line in last Saturday night’s draw.
Shirley had remained sceptical of their chances right up until Sunday morning, when she read out the list of winning balls and remarked: “Who’d have those numbers?”
She was stunned when Dennis calmly replied: “I do.”
The ticket, bought from a newsagent’s near their home, matched all six numbers 5, 8, 9, 10, 38 and 53 and netted the family £18,139,352.
All that has ever mattered to Shirley and I is that the girls are OK
Dennis wept tears of joy as they went public at a champagne ceremony where he said: “All that has ever mattered to Shirley and I is that the girls are OK.
“To know that is a wonderful feeling.”
The couple, who have lived in the same house in Bristol for 57 of their 60 years of married life, are believed to be Britain’s oldest lotto winners.
They were joined by daughters Tina, 54, and Karen, 51, to be handed a giant cheque at Tortworth Court, a country hotel in Gloucestershire.
At one point Dennis was so overcome he had to be comforted by Karen as he put his hands to his face.
He revealed that Shirley had said a few months ago that they should stop playing the lottery because of their lack of success.
When she realised on Sunday that they had won she went “berserk” and “fully up in the air” with excitement.
The couple said they would split the windfall three ways with their daughters but that if they could help anyone else they would.
They may also consider moving to a bungalow from their two-storey semi.
Dennis, who recently applied for a free council chairlift, said he was looking forward to buying a tailored suit.
He did National Service in the Army in Holland, Germany and Italy and was later in the RAF serving in Egypt.
Afterwards he worked at South West Electricity Board for 40 years.
Shirley, a former local government officer and shop assistant, said the jackpot had been a “complete and utter shock” but that she had always wanted to win for the children.
She added that she and Dennis might replace their three-door Nissan Micra with something a little roomier but “not a Ferrari or a Maserati”.
Mother-of-two Karen said she had her eyes on a Mulberry handbag.
Tina, who has three grown-up stepchildren, is a rugby fan who wants to watch the Lions play in South Africa.
She said: “The win means we can all take life a little calmer. Mum and Dad always said they played for us – I can’t tell you how pleased I am they did.”
The family all plan to donate to charities, including the Teenage Cancer Trust in memory of a family friend who died last year.