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01st Mar 2022

Dad dies just before finding out he won share of £7.9m lottery prize

Kieran Galpin

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His daughter will be accepting the prize in his honour

Just before finding out he had won a share of a £7.9m lottery jackpot, a dad died following a nasty stair fall that resulted in a broken neck.

Andrew Gillon, 59, tragically passed away during surgery, just days after he broke his neck at a friend’s house on New Year’s Eve. Unknown to Gillon at the time, he and everyone living in Shaw Crescent, Wishaw, had won a share of £7.9m on the Postcode Lottery.

His daughter Lisa told the Daily Record that it had been a lifelong ambition to win but sadly, he never found out.

“I found out dad had won via his friend and neighbour,” she said. “I thought there was no way he could have as I had blocked his bank account, so I presumed no payments would have been taken.”

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She continued: “When I got it confirmed, I felt absolutely devastated at first. I could just hear the excited phone call from him telling me he had won and I know his first thought would be to book us all a holiday.

“Now I still feel sad that he’s not here to enjoy this with us, but I also feel some excitement for him and I’m sure he has had something to do with this.”

Lisa said there have been “so many signs since he left us” and that she is certain he is watching over them, saying, “I told you so.”

She explained: “All I remember him saying is, ‘well you won’t be laughing when I win!’ and he was right I wasn’t laughing, I was crying.”

Faccebook

Gillon is still being counted as one of the winners and Lisa will be collecting the prize in his honour. Hundreds of players within the ML20 postcode will split the £7.9m, with all winners to receive a minimum of £1,000.

The exact amount of money Gillon won will be revealed at an exclusive event in Glasgow.

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