10/07/2007

‘Crying child’ helps Derry man scoop Lotto

A Londonderry man who won over £1 million in the National Lottery has thanked a crying child who was in the shop where he bought his ticket.

Denis Doherty, 60, a retired Du Pont worker is due to arrive at the Everglades Hotel in the city to receive the £1.6m cheque.

Mr Doherty explained that he had been in a queue at the Vivo Supermarket in Trench Road to fill his weekly lottery ticket when a woman had been trying to calm down her young son. He said: “The boy wanted his mother to buy him sweets and was getting very upset.

“I didn’t want to hold things up so I wrote down the first numbers that came into my head – it took a matter of seconds.”

The numbers he chose were 16, 22, 28, 30, 33, 35 and they landed him a one third share of last Saturday’s Lotto jackpot - £1,655,605.

He said: “Had I been able to take more time to think I have no doubt I would have selected some different numbers.

“None of the numbers had any personal connections like birthdays or anniversaries and had I remembered the date was 07/07/07 I might have been tempted to put in a ‘7’.”

Mr Doherty and his wife Patricia live in the Waterside area of Derry, and have no plans to move.

He also said they will not be celebrating with champagne, as he does not drink, “but I do need a new electric tin opener!”

(JM)

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