David and Kathleen Long from Scunthorpe are the first people to scoop a £1m prize twice and go public, and have beaten odds of 283bn to one

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A UK couple who have won £1m in the EuroMillions lottery for the second time have said they “just can’t believe it”.

David and Kathleen Long from Scunthorpe, who won their first £1m in 2013, scooped a big money prize again on Friday night, beating odds of more than 283bn to one, according to Camelot.

Long said he “just knew it would be my turn again some day” as the couple become the first people to win £1m twice who have gone public.

What are the odds of winning the EuroMillions draw twice? Read more

A spokesman for Camelot, which runs the UK national lottery, said: “This is an extraordinary situation where somebody’s been fortunate enough to win twice. As you can imagine, we see winners who win once who are very, very shocked. It must be even more shocking to win twice.”

The couple also scooped a top-of-the-range Jaguar.



Long said: “I always knew I’d win, even the first time. I just had a feeling it was going to be me. I tend to play when I know there are lots of prizes on the go.

“Last time I knew I had a good chance because there were 100 prizes of £1m. Last Friday night I was passing the local shop and saw there were 10 £1m prizes on EuroMillions and a nice car and thought yeah, I’ll give that a go. Got to be worth a few lines and I got five using my usual numbers.

“On Saturday morning I sat down in front of our telly and started checking the numbers. On one line I’d matched two numbers and one star to get 7.20 and thought that’s alright.

“Then I checked the raffle codes, something I’ve learnt to do automatically since winning last time. After a few moments I very calmly called Kath in and said: ‘Have a look at this. It’s there. Look. Read that line’.”

Long said his wife checked the television and went online. “Then she went up right close to our television on the wall, put on her glasses and stared really hard at the raffle numbers. It seemed ages and then she finally said: ‘You said you’d do it again and you have!’ Everything has been a blur ever since. It’s definitely taking longer to sink in this time.”

Meanwhile, a UK ticketholder won Tuesday’s £53m EuroMillions jackpot, but has yet to claim the prize.

It is the 10th biggest EuroMillions jackpot to be won in the UK.

Bonus ball – three more stories about unlikely lottery winners:

The Spanish town where 2000 people each won €400,000

French EuroMillions winner to give away €50m



My first year as a lottery winner







• This article was amended on 7 April 2015 to clarify that the odds of 283bn to one is Camelot’s estimate.