Python fan Len wins £500KThousand Thunderball prize

Len’s 64-year-old wife Hazel certainly believes it is. She said, “We’re your usual hardworking family but when you discover something as amazing as this, it’s worth celebrating in style and that’s what we did. We knew we’d probably taken the celebrations a little too far when all our local shops were out of our favourite champagne brand!”

Len, 66, always believed he’d win the lottery one day. And thanks to the Thunderball ticket he bought for the 16th December 2022 draw, he’s done just that.

Now, with the £500,000 top prize in his bank account, Len is looking forward to spending more time on his unusual passion: pythons. He said, “I grew up in outback Australia and I think that’s where my love of snakes has come from. Some people believe snakes are lucky. I don’t tend to believe that, but when I look at that giant cheque for £500,000 maybe there is some truth in it after all!”

The story of Len’s amazing win began when the couple, who have 3 children, were on their way to babysit their grandson. He said, “Every Friday we look after our little grandson and on this occasion, I popped into our local Co-Op on the way to pick up some instant coffee, and decided to treat myself to a couple of Lucky Dip tickets for the Thunderball draw that night. I put them in my wallet and thought no more about it until that evening when I checked my tickets on The National Lottery app.

“As I scanned the ticket I didn’t get the usual message and instead saw a big £500,000 flashing back at me. I assumed my phone had a gremlin so came out of the app and tried again, but received the same message. Totally confused, I brought the numbers up via the website, and cross checked them with my Thunderball ticket. It was then I suddenly realised there were no gremlins and I had in fact won half a million pounds!”

Hazel was fast asleep when Len burst into the bedroom, switched on the light and shouted, ‘Wake up, I’ve won!’”

Hazel said, “Len’s absolute belief that he was going to win big is a bit of a long running joke. Often when he has bought a ticket he’ll go to bed saying ‘when I wake up in the morning I’m going to be rich’. So, when he did wake me up, I didn’t really believe him and assumed it was a few pounds. We checked the numbers on the ticket again and I realised it was certainly a bit more than a few pounds, so we celebrated with a cup of tea.”

Len and Hazel’s family are at the heart of their plans for the future. Their son lives in Australia and the couple are looking forward to visiting in style. Len said, “We will be going in 2023 and what’s more, we’ll be going Business Class!”

4th January 2023