I'm lucky to be here, says £45 million lottery winner who beat cancer

An unemployed mechanic who scooped the UK's biggest ever lottery jackpot said yesterday he is lucky to be alive after beating testicular cancer.

Les Scadding believes it was fate that he scooped a £45,570,835.50 windfall after surviving a health scare several years ago.

The 58-year-old from Caerleon, near Newport, south Wales, said the win was particularly fortunate since he had forgotten the lottery card with his regular numbers on for the Euromillions draw.

But, rather than wait, he instead opted for two lucky dips at the city's Tesco store on the Spytty Road retail park.

The lucky ticket was bought on the same day the grandfather-of-six discovered he was £68 in the red at the bank.

He said he now intends to treat his wife, 38-year-old Samantha Peachey-Scadding, after admitting he has been a "kept man" since Christmas due to a scarcity of work.

"I'm very lucky to be here, having suffered with cancer," said Mr Scadding who has three grown-up children from his first marriage.

"I think somebody decided I have got to wait until now because I'm going to win the lottery."

But the jackpot win did not come as a complete surprise to Mr Scadding - he had been predicting a big win for years.

"It is a funny thing with my family but for the last 12 years I have always said I'm going to win the lottery.

"My family all laughed at me. My daughter, who lives in Abu Dhabi, always asked 'Have you won the lottery?' and I would say next time."

Since discovering their numbers had come up on Saturday, the couple admit they have not slept a wink.

Mr Scadding said he realised he had won some money when a pink slip came out of the lottery machine asking him to contact Camelot when he went to check his numbers on Saturday.

"I thought I might have won around £50,000 and I rushed home to tell Samantha."

After checking their ticket online and matching up all the numbers, Mrs Peachey-Scadding said she dropped her laptop in the excitement.

Mr Scadding, who is originally from Bristol, said: "It was a very funny couple of minutes. We just looked at each other while it sunk in before we got on the phone to Camelot."

The couple revealed at a packed press conference at the St David's Hotel, in Cardiff Bay, that the money has already been transferred over to them.

Mrs Peachey-Scadding, who runs her own marketing and PR business and regularly works 14-hour days, said they have not had chance to think about what they will spend their vast fortune on.

They did however say their favourite destination is Barbados and they plan to buy a place there. Mr Scadding said he also wants to get a black Range Rover Sport.

"I have never, ever, in my whole life owned a new car," he said. "I'm going to buy one now."

After the press conference, the couple made a stylish exit from Cardiff Bay in a £1million yacht loaned from the nearby Penarth marina.

The other £45 million-winning Euromillions ticket was bought by a syndicate of seven office workers based in Merseyside.

The winners - dubbed the "Magnificent Seven" - are all employed by Hewlett Packard to carry out IT work at a BT office in Liverpool and started playing the Lottery together only four months ago.

They are John Walsh, 57, James Bennett, 28, Sean Connor, 32, Alex Parry, 19, Emma Cartwright, 23, Ceri Scullion, 35, and Donna Rhodes, 39, who have each banked £6.5 million.