A FATHER-of-two from Basingstoke is looking forward to a career change thanks a £1 million Lottery win.

Ian Bennett, aged 49, was on a break when he saw a poster about the EuroMillions £96M jackpot and decided to treat himself to a couple of Lucky Dips.

Little did he know that spur of the moment decision would change his family’s life and also give him the freedom to retrain as an electrician.

Ian said: “I’ve been wanting a fresh challenge for a while but, with a family to support, this just wasn’t an option in the foreseeable future. Now, thanks to that quick purchase, I can follow a different path and our family can be financially secure all in one go. It’s flipping magic!”

Ian discovered the £1million win on Saturday morning when his wife Debbie, 45, a carer at a local nursing home, was at work.

He said: “I was sitting down to a late morning cup of tea when I decided to check my tickets. I had an old one from a previous draw, and the two I had bought the previous day. There was no win on the old ticket but when I scanned the next one with The National Lottery app it pinged up with a £1m win!”

In a panic Ian thought there must be a glitch in the system so immediately deleted the app, reinstalled it and scanned the ticket once more. When it again revealed the ticket was a £1m winner Ian started shaking, with tears of joy streaming down his face.

“Despite my state of utter shock I went into admin overdrive, I immediately signed the back of the ticket – a tip I remembered thanks to the film Waking Ned – and called Camelot to confirm the win. Once they gave me the thumbs up, I text Debbie in big shouty letters, we need to talk, and then on reflection two minutes later thinking that sounded a bit scary, nothing bad!”

During her lunch break Debbie nervously called back, not for a second expecting to hear the life changing news, ‘we’ve just won £1m’ from her husband of 18 years. Dropping her sandwich, phone still in hand she ran into the residents lounge, whooping with joy and repeating her husband’s lines at the top of her voice, ‘we’ve just won £1m!’

With family, friends and the nursing home residents all aware of the win, and their £1m win safely in the bank, Ian and Debbie can make some plans for the future. While a large chunk of the win will be in long-term investments, Ian will also be investing in himself, leaving his driving job behind him and retraining as an electrician.

Debbie has no plans to give up work entirely but she will cut her hours so they can have more time as a family in their new home.

Ian said: “We’re going to tie up a fair portion of the win so that we have financial security in the future but a new home is definitely on the cards. We don’t plan to leave the area, Debbie loves her job and the children are settled in school, but somewhere with a bit more room would be perfect. Hopefully roomy enough to store my vinyl collection – at the moment we have had to hire a storage unit because I’ve got too many records to keep at home!”

Alongside the new home and new career will be a family pet.

“When we explained to the children that we had won the lottery they only had two requests, our daughter made us promise we wouldn’t leave the area and our young son wanted a pet, a hamster, I think we can stretch to that.”

Ian bought his winning EuroMillions ticket at News Centre in Festival Place.