Lotto fortunes that come good and go bad

Some of the National Lottery’s biggest and most memorable winners have come from Scotland, since the game launched in 1994.

Kilmarnock became one of Britain’s luckiest places back in 2004, counting six Lotto jackpot winners in less than two years, taking a total of £15.9 million to the Ayrshire town.

Grandmother Rosemary Ferguson took home £2.2m that year, having played since the game began.

Ayrshire also produced Scotland’s biggest winners last year, Chris and Colin Weir, who won £161m in a EuroMillions draw.

They have since contributed money to the SNP, bought a new prosthetic limb for a Darlington teenager who lost a leg to cancer, sent a four-year-old girl to the United States for a life-changing operation and submitted plans for lavish improvements to their Largs mansion.

Overnight they catapulted to 22nd on Scotland’s rich list.

Other Scottish winners have included Midlothian couple Alex and Sandra Fraser in 2005, winning £8.5m, and six Glasgow distillery workers sharing £15m the week before.

Winnings have not always brought fortune, however. John and Elizabeth Slattery, who won £2.8m in 1995, were attacked and robbed in their home in Armadale, West Lothian, in 2001.

Another lotto winner, John McGuinness, quit nursing when he took home more than £10m in 1996. But he said he lost £4m through investing in Livingston Football Club.

John Roberts and his wife Linda, from Edinburgh, won £3.5m in 1998, but ended up living in a caravan after losing their winnings.