National Lottery pays out £7.5m to 20-year-old trainee gas engineer

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The National Lottery in the United Kingdom, which was worth over £7.5m, was won this week by a 20-year-old trainee gas engineer.

James Clarkson, who is from Cumbria in Carlisle, won the life-changing amount after his good luck began on Christmas Day. 

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The trainee gas engineer won £120 in the Lotto Christmas Day Draw, which Clarkson decided to use to buy five lottery tickets for the first draw of 2025. 

He chose his numbers at 16, 19, 22, 24, 27 and 35 – completely randomly – and ended up winning the jackpot total which was worth an incredible amount of £7,533,329. 

Compared to previous wins this year of £1m, £500,000 and £110,000 - Clarkson's win definitely stands out among the rest.

Speaking about the moment he found out, Mr Clarkson commented: “I was at my girlfriend’s house and got up early to check on the snowfall when I saw a message saying I’d won on the National Lottery app.

“I opened it straight away but couldn’t see anything to begin with; then I scrolled down and saw I’d matched all six main Lotto numbers to hit the jackpot and that my prize amount was over £7.5m. I thought I was dreaming!”

James, who left school during the Covid-19 pandemic and started a bricklaying apprenticeship, then called his father who told him to come home so they could both look at the message.

Then James, his Mum, Dad and 24-year-old brother Thomas, ended up sitting on his parents’ bed until 9am when the National Lottery Line opened. 

James added: “We called dead on nine and chatted through the ticket details and who I was. They confirmed that mine was the winning ticket. Then, I think I just started laughing. I thought, this is mad!

“I spent the rest of the day visiting my family and girlfriend who all live close by, all of us talking about the win. I have a big family and we are all close. News spread fast and we all ended up celebrating at Grandma’s and Grandad’s with a roast beef dinner and Champagne!”

Clarkson confirmed that he’s already booked a luxury holiday to Cape Verde, in West Africa, as well as some designer items including a Gucci handbag for his girlfriend. 

Despite that, James was up early the following morning to continue working with his parents. 

“I was out in the cold fixing blocked drains the day after I found out I had won,” James added. “I’m not going to stop working, I want to qualify as a heating engineer and then go from there. I need to have a purpose in my life, plus dad wouldn’t let me not work anyway.”

Clarkson does plan to pay off his parents mortgage and buy himself an Audi though, “If you drove a cold work van all day, going from job to job, you’d understand,” James joked.