No designer labels for UK jackpot winner

UK postal worker Angela Kelly might have scooped the biggest ever lottery jackpot, but she is unlikely to be hitting the designer stores to spend her newly-found wealth.

The 40-year-old single mother said today that she did not even like designer labels and has so far only treated herself to a manicure, ahead of facing the public today.

Her only shopping trip has been in the company of Camelot representatives, who helped her to find a suitable outfit for when she was revealed as the winner of £35.4m (€52.2m).

And it was a crash course in shopping at a level more befitting her new, whopping bank balance because she was taken into shops she would never have looked at before.

Mrs Kelly said: “I would just walk by and look in the window. I would never go in because I knew I could not even afford a scarf from there.”

Nothing is beyond her reach now, but even so, the mother-of-one is clearly still dumbfounded by her good fortune and has not even begun to think about how to spend it.

The same cannot be said of her 14-year-old son John, who – like most teenagers would do in the same situation – has a wish list as long as his arm.

He has already become the owner of a Play Station 3 due to his mother’s spectacular lottery win and now has a quad bike and Nintendo Wii in his sights.

But Mrs Kelly says he is “down-to-earth and grounded” and will not be swayed by the money, adding that he would probably have to wait for that quad bike until he is a bit older.

Asked if he also had his eye on a Mercedes, she said he probably wanted her to get one, given that he was only 14 and could not even drive.

But if that is the case, John will probably be disappointed because she says she only really likes driving small vehicles so will stick to them.

Mrs Kelly has been driving her sister’s car around recently because hers was written off in an accident earlier this year.

She could have bought a new car with the insurance money but chose to have a new kitchen fitted instead.

It is a financial dilemma she is unlikely to face for the rest of her life.

Mother and son currently live together in a flat in East Kilbride and a bigger house is one thing definitely on the shopping list.

It will not involve a move out of the area though, because John was at a local school and would not want to leave his friends, Mrs Kelly said.

The prospect of sending him to public school was also not something she was considering.

She said: “He does not want to go anyway. What John wants is more important anyway but no, I do not think I would do. He is coming to the end of his school career now anyway and he will be going out to get himself a job.”

The 40-year-old revealed she would be making donations to charity, and that she had a few in mind, but declined to give further details about which particular ones.

At the moment, it seems the only expense she may be treating herself to soon is another manicure after having the first one of her life this week.

She said: “It was great and lasted for half an hour. It was so relaxing. I will definitely be going back for that.”

Asked if she might go wild and have a pedicure as well, she squirmed and said she hated the idea of someone fiddling with her feet because they were ticklish.

A forthcoming holiday to Canada to visit family would still go ahead, Mrs Kelly said, but she and her son would now have their tickets upgraded.

A holiday to Hawaii might also be on the cards, because she added: “It is somewhere I have always wanted to go. Hawaii always seemed to be one of those places I would never be able to afford.”

The postal worker also said her new multi-millionaire status might mean she went to slightly more upmarket bars and ordered a bottle of champagne instead of a pint.

But she dismissed the idea that money could buy happiness and said it would only ease her life.