A midwife who won £1m in the lottery 10 years ago is still delivering babies. Ruth Breen, 45, told how she was on her lunch break at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan in 2014 when she checked her emails and discovered she had won the life-changing sum on the EuroMillions.
A decade on, the mother-of-one is still working for the NHS, although she has enjoyed splashing out on holidays to destinations such as Dubai, St Lucia and Mauritius - and on Jimmy Choo shoes.
She said: "An awful lot has changed in the past 10 years but then again, not so much. The win came at the most perfect time ever. It allowed me to reduce my working hours, giving me a much better work-life balance.
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"I'm really lucky that I only work part-time. That's enabled me to spend much more time with my daughter doing fun mum things instead of working flat out for a really really busy service. We've had great holidays, but we've tried to keep our feet on the ground and I think working really helps me to do that."
Ms Breen said she wanted to continue working to set an example to her daughter, who was 11 when she won.
She said: "The universe gifted me something incredible but you can’t take it for granted, not everybody’s that lucky.”
The community midwife now arrives at her visits in a BMW X3, saying the need for boot space prevented her from driving a sportier model, and her first purchase following the win was a pair of Jimmy Choos.
She said: “I nearly cried when I was paying for them in Selfridges because I couldn’t believe I was actually able to purchase this and I had the money to do it. It was a little bit overwhelming. That
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