A couple who scooped more than £2m on the lottery have put their good fortune down to a chance run in with Olympic gold medal winner Mo Farah.
Alisdair and Libby McRae, from Ellon near Aberdeen, matched all six numbers in Saturday’s draw and landed £2,159,664.
While running the Bupa 10K in May, Mrs McRae was overlapped by the 10km and 5km gold medalist and she is convinced the encounter brought them both luck.
Mrs McRae, 50, said: “I can’t believe this has happened to us. It must have been my lucky run-in with Mo Farah. When I was finishing the Bupa 10K in May, he lapped me and I moved to the side until he had passed. It was an amazing moment for me and I have felt so lucky ever since.
“Mo went onto win double Olympic gold and I went on to win over £2m – thanks Mo.”
Recalling the moment they won, the mature student, said: “We always put the lottery on but it’s usually my husband Alisdair who does it. But for some reason while I was standing in the queue chatting to my friend, I thought it’ll do no harm in using up this pound coin on another ticket, so I bought a lucky dip.
“I thought no more of it until I went to Asda in Peterhead on Sunday morning and had it checked. The woman behind the counter told me that I’d have to call Camelot because they can only pay out up to £500.
"We laughed about it being little over £500 until she informed me that I had all six numbers. We stopped laughing at that point and both turned chalk white.”
The McRaes, who have been married for 28 years, celebrated their win at the Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen, the venue where they wed back in 1984.
Mrs McRaes added: “With four children and four dogs our four-bedroom house in Ellon is a tight squeeze, so the first thing we’ll do is buy a new home. We won’t move from Ellon though, we all love it here. After that, I am getting a cleaner.
“Alisdair wants eye surgery because his eye-sight is terrible. The kids and their cousins will get the trip to Florida they’ve always wanted and I think I will buy a new family car. I’ve had my eye on a Toyota V8 Land Cruiser so I think that’s the one for us.”
