A SCOT who shared in the UK's second-largest lottery jackpot of £148 million with her husband has admitted she "turned a bit pale" after checking their winning EuroMillions numbers.
Gillian Bayford, 40, originally from Kirkcaldy in Fife, and husband Adrian follow another couple, Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs, Ayrshire, who scooped more than £161m last year.
Mrs Bayford, whose maiden name is McCulloch, will leave her post as a healthcare assistant at the children's ward at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. The couple live in Haverhill, Suffolk, with their six-year-old daughter Aimee and son Cameron, four.
Mrs Bayford, who went public with Adrian yesterday at a press conference, said: "I checked the numbers on my phone, the TV, the internet – and we just looked at each other and giggled."
Mr Bayford, co-owner of a music store he built up from a market stall, said he would return to work, but he planned to splash some of the cash taking the children to Disney World and crossing the Canadian Rockies by train.
The couple said they would also be on the hunt for a new family home, while Mrs Bayford, who graduated from the University of Abertay after attending Harris Academy in Dundee, said the first item on her shopping list was a luxury Audi Q7 car.
She said: "I find it hard to take in the actual quantity of it. We have always worked and saved up for holidays or things that we need. We have lived within our means and been comfortable but we have been like ships in the night to earn the income we needed. It will be fantastic to spend more time as a family now.
"This money has come at the right time for us and is going to benefit the whole family."
They said the amount they won was life-changing "not just for us, for everyone", saying they would look to repay people who have helped them financially, both friends and family.
"It is such a large amount that it isn't something for one person," said Mrs Bayford. "It is something to share with other people, people that need help, people that have helped us and supported us."
The windfall from Friday's draw has catapulted the couple to 516th place in Britain's Rich List with a fortune to rival Jamie and Jools Oliver (£150m), Sir Tom Jones (£140m) and Eric Clapton (£130m).
Mrs Bayford said that before her good fortune she had been worrying about her spending for the month – and that she would still appreciate a bargain.
She joked: "I'm Scottish, we're known for being tight, I'll still be hitting the sales. This month had been an extremely tight month, to be honest.
"We had gone shopping the other day and I had spent some money on the children for some holiday clothes. I actually got home that night and thought 'hmmm, I really shouldn't have spent that' because I'm a bit short this month, my night shifts hadn't been as many as I previously had."
Mrs Bayford was asked about the fact that Scots have won the two largest payouts on the EuroMillions, to which she replied: "We have nice short arms and long pockets. And we can just reach that money for the euro ticket, that's all."
Sanjay and Bev Patel, who run the shop where the Bayfords bought their winning ticket, said the Bayfords were a lovely couple. Mr Bayford regularly bought his tickets at their shop.
"It couldn't have happened to a nicer couple," Mr Patel said. Describing the Bayfords' plan to share money with friends and family, Mrs Patel added: "That is lovely, but that is their nature."
l There was no winner of the £11.8million jackpot in last night's EuroMillions draw. The winning numbers were 1, 16, 38, 42, 45 and lucky stars nine and 10. Millionaire Raffle: KFT691325.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article