Single mother celebrates her €52.3m ‘wee win’
Angela Kelly, 40, who lives with 14-year-old John in East Kilbride, won £35.4 million (€52.3m) in Friday’s EuroMillions draw.
Her son has already drawn up a wish-list of presents — but he is desperate to stay in their modest two-bedroom flat so he does not lose contact with his friends.
Ms Kelly said she was so “flabbergasted” she could not speak when she realised she had the winning ticket.
It was not until she returned to work on Monday that the postal worker discovered her lucky dip ticket had won.
Ms Kelly revealed she at first refused to tell her son how much she had won when he called her at the office to find out when she would be home.
“I said to him ‘I will speak to you tonight, I have had a wee win on the lottery’,” she said.
“But he phoned me back and asked me how much it was.”
John asked if it was £1m before his mother told the speechless teenager it was in fact more than £35m.
Ms Kelly had already asked her colleagues at the Royal Mail sorting office in Glasgow to check the numbers because she could not believe she might have won.
“I couldn’t even say anything, I just pushed my chair back and put my head between my knees, I was so flabbergasted,” she told a press conference.
Ms Kelly then told how she tried to call the number on the back of the ticket to claim the win — but accidentally called a helpline.
She was eventually able to claim her win, and was whisked off by a team from Camelot, who took her shopping and to stay in a hotel.
Ms Kelly, who has been separated from her husband Gerry for eight years, has worked at the Glasgow Mail Centre since she was 16 and her annual salary there was £21,000 (€31,000).
She will now make more than that on interest from her win every week.
Ms Kelly she said she had not even thought that her estranged husband might want to lay claim to some of her fortune.
“I haven’t even thought about that. I think he’ll leave that up to me.”
