EuroMillions winner to spend £1,000,000 winnings on new home with terminally ill husband
'It still all seems very surreal. There is no other word to describe what we are going through right now.'
A carer who won £1 million on the lottery plans to buy a bungalow to make her terminally ill husband’s life easier.
Marlyn Anderson, 70, and husband Ian, 77, have been living in the front room of their house due to the round-the-clock treatment he needs for a lung disease.
Ian developed pleural plaques and pulmonary fibrosis after working on construction sites, which he believes is linked to asbestos exposure.
The couple, who have two children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild, have been married 32 years but they had to give up foreign holidays due to Ian’s diagnosis.
Marlyn described their current home in Stirling as ‘like a bedsit’, and she now hopes to find a spacious bungalow nearby after winning EuroMillions.
The couple have already bought an automatic car, a Citroen DS 7 Rivoli, with the winnings after Marlyn bought a lucky dip ticket online.
She initially believed the amount she had won was £1,000 and said she was ‘delighted’ with the small amount, but began to fear it was a scam when she saw the number of zeroes.
Marlyn believes her win couldn’t have come at a better time as it will ensure Ian can have the very best quality of life in the time he has left.
She said: ‘As a result of Ian’s condition, he is unable to get upstairs. He struggles to breathe so we currently have our living room set up like a bedsit. We have no other option.
‘Buying a bungalow will allow Ian to have his own bedroom and for us to have a sitting room too, all on one level. This will be so special as it is something we haven’t been able to do for such a long time. He will be able to live the rest of his life in comfort.’
She recalled when she got the news that she had won: ‘It was the day after the draw that I logged on to my emails just to see if there was any news about my ticket, and there was.
‘I just kept thinking it couldn’t be true and it must be a scam. I was desperately watching the clock tick to 8am when I could call the National Lottery number to confirm if what I was seeing really was true.
‘I couldn’t believe it when the person on the other end of the phone told me it was. I actually don’t think the news has fully sunk in yet. Neither Ian nor I can believe it.
‘It still all seems very surreal. There is no other word to describe what we are going through right now.’
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