Bedlington family planning a holiday after lottery win

Darren Coates was “stunned” to learn his postcode – NE22 6NL – was a winner.

He and his wife Judith collected their cheque from the lottery’s head office in Edinburgh and when the dad-of-two caught a glimpse of the amount, he gasped and said: “Wow! I wasn’t expecting that. It feels amazing; I'm totally and absolutely flabbergasted.”

The 55-year-old later added: “It’s a day we’ll never forget, we’ll never forget it in a million years.”

The couple are now planning a holiday with their kids. Judith said: “We might take them away for a nice family break, maybe to the Lake District, because it is one of our favourite places.”

Darren added: “It would be nice to get a bit of sunshine and we can do it now; without worrying. We’ve not been abroad for years, so maybe a trip to Paris as we’ve always said we’d go back.”

Judith, who has worked as an NHS nurse for more than 33 years, said the pandemic had been an especially difficult time: “The last few years have been really tough, and with both our kids also working in the NHS, it’s been tough for us all.”

“This is therefore just incredible news.”

Darren, who works as a self-employed kitchen and bathroom fitter said: “We went to Edinburgh to see Dick and Angel Strawbridge from ‘Escape to the Chateau’, as they are currently on tour. Then the Postcode Lottery called and said I’d won something, and that they were based in the city. ”

Judith added: “The irony is we shouldn’t even be in Edinburgh, we were originally going to book the show for London, so it’s a bit of a fluke that we were there.”

Darren laughed and said: “It’s meant to be, it’s more than perfect. I could do this every week.”

When asked if Darren might buy something for himself, he said: “No, it’ll be just be nice to treat the kids, something to make them smile.”

Judith joked: “Once they see how much it is, they’ll be like, ‘Bank of mum and dad, what are you giving us?’

The other winner chose to remain anonymous.