A NATIONAL Lottery winning dinner lady still lives in her council house, shops in Primark and drives a Kia despite bagging £1.8million.
Trish Emson, 51, explained money or her millionaire status did not change her or her partner Graham Norton, also 51, who still works as a decorator.
The down-to-earth pair have even managed to keep their teenage son Benjamin, 17, in check – and don't even give him pocket money.
The modest mum, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said: "Being rich doesn’t make you posh or a better person.
"I don’t like showing off and bragging about money and I can’t be posh anyway.
"To look at me you wouldn’t think I was a millionaire, but if I have to dress up I feel fake, I prefer my jeans," she told The Mirror.
The 51-year-old still enjoys a low-key lifestyle and has refrained from buying fancy items.
"We’ve been careful. I don’t buy flash cars, I’ve got a Kia and I still shop in Primark. The best thing we bought was the caravan in Cleethorpes.
"It’s a big un! Actually, I’ve got two now. I bought one for my family and friends, for when they come down," Trish added.
"There’s been a few nice holidays too – to Benalmádena, Benidorm, Ibiza and I took my mum on a cruise."
Trish gushed about the moment her and Graham's life changed forever back in October 2003.
"My other half put the numbers up on the telly," she recalled. "I said, ‘I’ve got that’, ‘I’ve got that’, I’ve got that!
"I walked to the shop and passed my ticket over and he said, ‘I can’t give you that. You’ve got the jackpot, you jammy b****r’."
While she awaited her winnings after calling Camelot, she hid the winning ticket – but feared it could go up in flames.
"I put the ticket in the bottom drawer, but we were worried as my mother-in-law, who lived with us, had burnt the kitchen down the week before," she said.
"We’d put some meat in and asked her to put the oven on at a certain time, but she put the grill on instead. We had the fire brigade out.
"All the walls were black but the joint was cooked well. The ticket was in the drawer and we had images of it going up in flames."
BIRTH OF SON "BETTER THAN LOTTO WIN"
Despite scooping the £1,747,728 jackpot, Trish told how the "best thing in her life" actually happened two weeks AFTER she had won the cash.
She and Graham had been trying for a baby for five and a half years and had made plans to begin IVF treatment.
"I would have given all the money back just to get pregnant," Trish said.
"All I ever wanted was to have children. I had been planning to do IVF, so I was over the moon when I got pregnant.
"I really believe it was thanks to winning the lottery that I did get pregnant.
"I had my mind on something else and it just happened.
"That was a better feeling than winning the lottery and the best thing that’s happened in my life."
But although she enjoys spoiling her loved ones – in moderation – she is determined to keep her son humble despite his parent's bank balance.
LOW-KEY LIFESTYLE
"He doesn’t even get pocket money," Trish explained.
"But he does put things in my Amazon basket, although if he’s being cheeky and there’s something for £100, I say, ‘I don’t think so!’
"He went to a normal school, I didn’t send him to a private one because sometimes they can be a bit stuck up and we wanted to keep him with his friends."
The youngster now attends the sixth form at his local school with his school pals, while Trish continues her role as a dinner lady at her local primary school.
"I’d be bored to tears without it and I love the kids, they cheer me up every day," the 51-year-old continued.
"The kids told me they Googled me because they thought I was telling them fibs about winning the lottery."
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