Lotto millionaires seal it with a kiss at tower
Andrew Cunliffe, 37, won the seven-figure sum when he bought a scratchcard while nipping to Asda to buy some teabags for his workmates on February 12.
His first act as a millionaire was to get down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend Natalie Cliff, 30, in hope of finally giving her ‘the wedding she always dreamed of’.
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Hide AdHe said: “It is something I have been wanting to do for a long time but I always worried I would not be able to give Natalie the wedding of her dreams. Now I can.”
The delighted couple celebrated their win – and engagement – with flowers and Champagne at the famous Blackpool Tower where they met five years ago. Andrew, who works as a site construction manager with RP Tyson Construction, was carrying out renovation work at the Tower, where Natalie works as an events manager.
Andrew said: “We started talking and we just clicked.”
The couple are now looking forward to their wedding, which they hope will take place late next year – but have vowed to be ‘careful’ with the remainder of their unexpected win
Natalie said: “We have always wanted to go abroad. We want it to be somewhere sunny and nice with a beach.
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Hide Ad“We’re not usually extravagant people. Now we can afford exactly what we’ve always dreamed of.
“We can spend thousands and thousands on a wedding and get entertainment that we might not have had and we won’t have to save up for it.”
She added they have no plans to take a break from work, and would use the money to look after their two-year-old daughter.
She said: “The only thing we have thought about is probably paying off the mortgage. We want to be debt-free.
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Hide Ad“We have to be quite careful because it’s not an amount you can retire on.
“We could spend thousands on a dream holiday to Florida for our little girl – but we’ll wait until she can remember it first.”
Andrew added: “You never think it’s going to happen to you and when it does it’s just a whirlwind.
“We just want to do what’s best for our family and our little girl. We won on the Friday and we were back at work on the Monday morning.”
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Hide AdThe couple are already saving up the pounds as Natalie decided to wear her grandmother’s old engagement ring rather than splash out on a new, expensive stone.
Andrew said: “I think the news really is still just sinking in and I think this will take several weeks. We are not going to rush into anything. We are just going to take our time and ensure we make the right decisions.”