'I won £2.7m on lottery but returned to stacking shelves at M&S – money never changed me'

'I won £2.7m on lottery but returned to stacking shelves at M&S – money never changed me' It has been just over 30 years since Elaine Thompson won £2.7million on the lottery with her husband Derek but she has explained why she kept working in M&S up until her recent retirement Winning millions on the lottery has led to many examples of people getting too big for their boots — but this is not always the case. We recently reported how delivery driver Gary MacDonald won £5.2m on the lottery before kindly returning to his former workplace to hand out presents. Gary, 61, who has since retired, delivered parcels to shops across Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock, Essex, where he worked for more than three decades before his life-changing win. Speaking about going back to enjoy the moment with his colleagues, he said: “I'm delighted to come out of retirement for the day to fulfil the promise I made myself. “It's been great surprising my old colleagues, their faces have been a picture. I think we've done a brilliant job of surprising them and spreading the joy with today's deliveries.” And while Gary proved that the money didn’t go to his head, one mum from Newcastle went a step further after her own lottery win. Elaine Thompson took on night shifts in Marks & Spencer, a job she enjoyed up until her recent retirement. She last spoke publicly during a chat with Powerball winner Timothy Schultz who suffered an unexpected dark side after his 40p ticket landed him £23m. Elaine meanwhile said she suffered no negativity from the windfall and that it gave her and her family the most incredible life. Her and husband Derek won £2.7million in December 1995 and they remain completely in love having been together for almost 50 years since they were teenagers. But as for why Elaine, who is from Newcastle, went on to get up at 2am for night shifts in M&S all the way up until recently, she told Timothy on his YouTube channel: “I love to work. I can’t be in the house 10 hours, 12 hours a day. “It drives me insane. I mean, I’m nearly 70 now, so I had to retire. There has to be a time when you’ve got to stop. But I still miss work. And I worked for 50 years. I’d go back if I could.” Timothy then questioned whether the lottery win changed her because he had noticed in some other winners that it magnified their personalities and led to extreme decision making. However, Elaine simply said: “It hasn’t changed me at all. I’ll not change for anybody. So no, I wouldn’t change for anything.” And as for the greatest thing about winning the lottery with her husband, she said: “The major thing is my children have gone through university. They’re all on the housing, they’ve all got houses. They’re increasing them every time. They are happy, they’ve got children, I’ve got grandchildren. “It’s just, we’ve had an extraordinary life. The things that I have done are extraordinary. “I mean, who would have thought a little girl from Wallsend, it’s a very small place, walking through the doors of Number 10? Never in a million years I would have dreamed I’d do that.” Elaine has achieved a lot since the lottery win including turning a two-star rundown B&B in Lyme Regis, Dorset, into a five-star one within six months of buying it. She also bought a restaurant after running the B&B for six years and this was another success. Derek and Elaine eventually moved back to the north east which is where she got a job she loved stacking shelves in M&S. And as for how she has always lived her life, she concluded: “My philosophy is you go to bed with a smile, you get up with a smile, whatever happens through the day happens, you can’t, you can’t change that.” Finally, for anyone fortunate enough to ever win the lottery, she offered the following advice: “If you do win, the decisions you make on the day are completely different to weeks down the line. “So we always say, take at least a month before you make any decisions on what you’re going to do, where you’re gonna go, whatever.”