£2.7 million National Lottery Winner Became a Shelf Stacker

In 1995 Elaine Thompson and her husband Derek won a £2.7 million National Lottery jackpot. Despite becoming a millionaire, Mrs Thompson still got up at 2am to go and stack shelves at Marks and Spencer.

Winning the top prize came just a year after the launch of the National Lottery and she had quickly become a big fan. Three lines of numbers were picked for each draw and they came from birthdays and anniversaries.

The real victors

At the time of winning their jackpot, the couple were living in Basingstoke in Hampshire. They used to live in Newcastle and on December 9, 1995 went to see his home team play Chelsea. Before leaving he reminded his wife to buy their lottery ticket. Newcastle lost  but as he says: “We ended up being the real victors” that day.

His wife initially thought their win was only £10 but it turned out to be a lot more than that. The week before, Elaine had told someone she was going to win the lottery jackpot one day/.  “It felt like destiny – only I didn't anticipate it happening so soon,” said the National Lottery jackpot winner.

They went public about their win after someone told the press of their success. One of their first major purchases was what Elaine calls “a dilapidated B&B” which they then turned into five-star holiday cottages.

That wasn’t to make profits though. “We offered free holidays to families affected by cancer, which brought us immense happiness.”  They also bought a restaurant and gave young people work experience.  The couple also used their lottery winnings to visit all the horse racing courses in the UK.

Back to work

When the couple decided to move  back up north, Elaine began stacking shelves at Marks and Spencer, to keep busy and she loved the “social aspect and routine.” That’s even though she had to get up at 2am.  

Elaine is now retired but busy renovating her new home. A trip around Europe is planned when her husband retires.

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