(JollofNews) – A Gambian man who is working as pub kitchen manager has scooped the UK’s biggest ever scratchcard jackpot of £4 million while on his dinner break – but then went back to finish his shift.
Dedicated Amadou Gillen, 46, bought two £10 scratchcards from a newsagents during a 12-hour shift at Wetherspoons. He lit a cigarette and scratched the first to win £10 – but the second one revealed he had become a multi-millionaire.
But shocked father-of-two Amadou did not tell anyone, and went on to work for another four hours with the card in his pocket before finishing his shift last Wednesday.
He only broke the news to his family yesterday and while he has splashed out on a new wardrobe, he shopped at TK Maxx because he ‘still loves a bargain’.
The former McDonalds apprentice from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, is going to spend the cash on trading his one-bed rented flat for a modest three-bed home in Bristol. He also wants to learn how to drive with a week-long intensive course, but intends to buy a Peugeot while he gets to grips with being on the road.
Speaking today for the first time about his win, delighted Amadou said: ‘When I saw the number ‘4’ on the card I knew they didn’t pay out £40, so I knew it had to be £4million.
‘I scratched off the rest and oh my, I was so excited – but I put the card back in my pocket, 
and went back to finish the rest of my shift. It was certainly a long shift that day. I didn’t finish until 11.30pm or 12 that night, so had to work for almost four hours knowing I had won. I don’t know how I did it. People say when they win the lottery they will feel like this, or that, but when you do, you feel different. I wanted to celebrate, but I couldn’t. It was a feeling I can’t express.’
Single Mr Gillen, who has two daughters, aged 19 and 22, moved from his native Gambia more than 20 years ago to Wiltshire.
He has always worked in the restaurant industry, initially as an apprentice at McDonalds, before starting at The Albany Palace in Trowbridge nearly five years ago.
He was working a 12-hour shift last Wednesday when he bought the cards from a nearby McColls, alongside a packet of cigarettes, at around 8pm.
Mr Gillen sat in a staff-only outside area to scratch the cards, and phoned his family in the Gambia at the end of his shift to say he had ‘got lucky’.
‘I was so excited, but I didn’t tell them about the win,’ he said
‘I just said I had got lucky and would let them know how lucky in time.’
He put the card – which offers a 1 in 3 chance of winning – in a briefcase back home, until it was verified by lottery officials on Tuesday.
Written by Gaby Bissett
Courtesy of Mailonline
