The parents of a Carnoustie woman who scooped a £148 million lottery jackpot with her husband did not find out about the amazing win until the next day because their mobile phone was in the next room.
Gillian Bayford (40) and her husband Adrian, who live in Suffolk, won £148,656,000 in Friday’s EuroMillions draw to instantly become one of Britain’s richest couples.
Gillian is a children’s ward health care assistant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and Adrian owns a music shop.
Gillian, who works shifts, said the win will allow her family to spend more time together.
She said: ”Neither of us can quite comprehend just how much £148 million is. We have always worked and saved up for holidays, or things that we need. We have lived within our means and been comfortable but we have been like ships in the night to earn the income we needed. It will be fantastic to spend more time as a family now.
”The win is not just for us, it is for us to share and everyone’s life is going to be so much more enjoyable and stress-free.”
Her parents Ian (68) and Brenda (64) McCulloch moved to Barry Downs Caravan Park, near Carnoustie, where her brother Colin (38) still lives, four months ago. Brenda is recovering from a broken leg she sustained four weeks ago.
Born in Kirkcaldy, Gillian was raised in Carnoustie but attended Blackness Primary School and Harris Academy in Dundee before studying business management at Dundee University.
She moved to Inverness, where she met Adrian, 10 years ago. The couple married two years later and now have two children, Cameron (4) and Aimee (6).
The Bayfords learned they were the UK’s second-biggest lottery winners on Friday night when Adrian checked their lucky dip ticket but it was not until the next morning that Gillian was able to reach her parents to tell them their lives had all been transformed.
”I had missed calls through the night on my mobile,” Ian told The Courier. ”I hadn’t heard it ringing because it was through in the next room. When it rang again I answered and it was my daughter. She asked if mum was there and when I said she was I put the phone on loudspeaker.”
He added: ”I thought it was going to be bad news. She then said: ‘Are you there mum? I’ve got something to tell you … We’ve won the lottery’.
”I didn’t realise the magnitude of it until later. I just thought, that’s fantastic.”
Ian said he then called Colin, who had been playing golf in Banff.
He returned to Carnoustie that day, although he and his parents chose not to indulge in any lavish celebrations.
They visited The Bar at the caravan park on Saturday night for a couple of hours but did not reveal anything about Gillian’s life-changing win.
”People were talking about it (the EuroMillions) but we just sat at a table by ourselves and went home at nine o’clock,” he said. ”We don’t know what they’ll do with the money it is Gillian and Adrian’s,” said Ian. ”But nobody deserves it more.”
Main photo by Sean Dempsey/PA Wire