Lottery winner scoops £8.5m (From Free Press Series)

Lottery winner scoops £8.5m

A LOCAL journalist is celebrating the scoop of a lifetime - winning £8.5m on the National Lottery.

Pat Griffiths, 48, editor of the Abergavenny Chronicle, and her husband, Roger, 53, matched all six numbers in Saturday's rollover draw, winning £8,485,162.

The couple, who have two sons, Robert, 24, and David, 22, live on a 148-acre farm near Abergavenny, where they raise sheep and produce some beef.

The Griffiths family are now Gwent's biggest-ever Lottery winners, overtaking Stephanie Powell, from Ebbw Vale, who won £7m in 1999.

Pat is now leaving the Chronicle, and the couple plan to invest some of the cash in their farm - their first buy was a new tractor.

"The win is fantastic - now we are looking forward to investing the money wisely in the farm's and our sons' futures," said Pat.

Robert is studying construction building management at UWIC, in Cardiff, while David is at Nottingham Trent University, studying conservation and countryside management.

The winning ticket was bought from the Safeway store in Abergavenny, and Pat and Roger were watching the draw live when their winning numbers came in.

"It was a strange feeling, I was actually quite calm," said Pat.

"I just turned to Roger and said, 'we've got it'. Now my emotions are really quite mixed. "We have never had a lot of money before to put away for our futures.

"There are obviously local charities which we want to support."

Roger added: "We already live somewhere that we think is paradise, so we will certainly be staying."

Pat started her career with the South Wales Argus and ran her own catering business before joining the Abergavenny Chronicle in 1989, becoming editor two years ago.

"I never thought I would be making the headlines myself," she said.

Their winning numbers were: 4, 8, 21, 24, 39, 44 and the bonus ball was 5.