THE National Lottery's oldest jackpot winner celebrated with his family over a pint of beer yesterday after scooping #1.6m in Wednesday's draw.
Jack Hewitt, 79, said of the moment when he watched the television screen and realised he had won: ''I thought it was a dream and I was going to wake up.''
The great-grandfather, from St Helens, Lancashire, said: ''I trembled all the way through as the numbers came up. I will never forget seeing my numbers on that screen and shouting: 'Them's mine.' I felt like running outside and telling everybody.''
Mr Hewitt immediately telephoned his daughter Jacqui Collier, 54, to check the numbers.
''She said I had got it all right,'' he said. ''She told me at first it was #10m and I said: 'I'll never get that in my pocket'.''
Mr Hewitt, whose wife Edna died four years ago, used the same numbers he has chosen in every draw since the lottery was launched to scoop the prize, which he shared with five other winners.
The Second World War veteran, who saw service in North Africa as a driver-mechanic, sipped a pint of his usual beer as he talked of the win at a hotel near his home with Mrs Collier and his sons Geoff, 49, and Neil, 38.
Mr Hewitt has four grandchildren, aged between 17 and 29, and four great-grandchildren.
He said he had not planned how to spend the money but hoped to take his family away on holiday.
''I want to do things for my family because they have stood by me since my wife died,'' he said.
''That is the one thing I am sorry about, that my wife isn't here to enjoy it with me.''
Mr Hewitt has no immediate plans to move from the bungalow where he lives in the town.
''I am hoping this doesn't change me. I am quite comfortable as I am. I am not one for the champagne. I would rather have a pint of bitter.''
He is three years older than the previous oldest jackpot winner, Leslie Faulkner, 76, from Liverpool, who won just over #1m on January 24 this year.
q The estranged husband of a millionaire lottery winner was yesterday said to be ''delighted'' at his wife's jackpot success, despite missing out on a share of her #1,666,000 win.
Georgina Cox, 35, said her husband David was ''very pleased'' after she told him she had scooped a sixth of Wednesday's #10m jackpot.
The mother-of-two, of Wednesdfield, Wolverhampton, told a news conference in Birmingham that she split from her 36-year-old husband five months ago.
Mrs Cox, a hospital supervisor, said: ''We are separated, but it's very amicable. I have spoken to him today and he's very pleased for me and the children. He's behind me 100%.''
She said she had been married for nine years before the split, adding: ''We are good friends.
''I am the winner, but if he needs anything it will be there for him.''
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