Shop manager vows to carry on working despite £1 million scratchcard win in Londonderry

A supermarket manager from Northern Ireland has vowed to return to work after winning £1million on a scratch card.

Shawn Keeley, 26, from Londonderry scooped the win after playing a National Lottery £5 Mega Cash Showdown game on Saturday.

After scratching off the winning symbols Mr Keeley did not believe the result, and made his mum and dad double-check the card before he called Camelot.

As well as planning to buy a Range Rover, the finance graduate said he hopes to treat his mum to a new driveway and garden shed with the money.

He said: "At first I thought it must be a fake card and I checked every inch of it to make sure it was real.

"Then I double-checked all the numbers and they looked good too, so I gave the card to my mum and dad to have a look.

“They also checked it again and again and agreed that it looked like I’d won – but I still didn’t believe it.

"Then I phoned the number for Camelot on the back of the card at about 7.30pm and ran through the details with a lovely lady on the end of the phone before she said the magic words: ‘Congratulations, you’ve won a million pounds.’"

Mr Keeley said he could not believe what he was hearing, and was still trying to process the news while his mum was making plans for spending the money.

His brothers, who live in England and Australia, thought it was a prank when he told them about the win.

“The first thing I’ll do is fix up the front of my mum’s house and get her a new driveway and a garden shed. I’ll give a little something to my mum, dad and three brothers, Gavin, Paul and Christopher,” he added.

“I plan on buying myself a Range Rover and, depending on how travel restrictions go over the next while, I’d like to book myself a nice holiday somewhere.

"Before the pandemic broke out, my friends and I were looking at a possible trip across the USA but while that’s on the back-burner for now, it’s definitely in our future plans.”

Shawn is going to carry on working at the store he manages, saying that he has a great relationship with the owners.

He’s had a lot of support from locals too. “It’s been really nice as customers have been coming into the shop and saying that they’re delighted for me and that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer family.”

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