Couple celebrate £8.5m Lotto win

Kate and Neil Chester plan to build a new life together in Kent

A Kent couple are celebrating after scooping an £8.5m national lottery jackpot a week after taking redundancy.

Neil and Kate Chester, who were living separately in Margate and Guernsey, won the rollover draw on Wednesday.

The couple lived apart to save money for renovations to their house in St Peter Port, Guernsey, but they now plan to build a new life together in Kent.

Mr Chester, 31, said: "2007 has been a terrible year for us and all of a sudden it looks better."

He added: "If I hadn't been made redundant this would never have happened.

For the past five months Mrs Chester, 30, and their four children, had been staying at her father's house in Margate, while her husband moved back to his mother's home in Guernsey.

I went dizzy in the shop. I looked down at the prize fund and my eyes could hardly focus Neil Chester

They made the arrangement to save money to pay for renovations to their four-bedroom townhouse in Guernsey.

Mr Chester checked a Lotto ticket in Margate, where he was having job interviews, just six days after accepting voluntary redundancy from an IT role.

Mr Chester said: "I went dizzy in the shop. I looked down at the prize fund and my eyes could hardly focus.

"I clutched it [the ticket] in my fist and sprinted home and gave Kate a big kiss."

The couple have three sons, aged 10, eight and five, and a 15-month-old daughter.

Mr Chester said: "The situation over the last five months meant I really missed the children. Now when they've got a school trip and they need parents I can stick up my hand and volunteer. I dote on my children.

"I've explained to them it's not something we have achieved, we're just extremely lucky."

He and his wife married nine years ago in Romsey, Hampshire, but could not afford a honeymoon at the time.