£4m lotto winners buy matching bungalows

Eighty-year-old Thomas Foden and his daughter Irene Harper, aged 60, made national headlines after winning a share of the UK's first Lotto quadruple rollover jackpot back in October.

However father-of-two Mr Foden has revealed that until now he is yet to spend a penny of his newly found fortune on himself.

All that is set to change though as the pair are each set to buy new homes in the same part of Sedgley – allowing Mr Foden the chance to wave goodbye to his council house of 60 years.

Former Tarmac construction worker Mr Foden said: "I am looking to buy a bungalow. At the moment I am living in a three-bedroom house but it is just me. This is a two bedroom in a green area. My daughter is looking to buy a bungalow in the same place."

Despite splashing out on a new property Mr Foden says he is determined to keep his feet on the ground and insists his life has not really changed since his big win.

Speaking from his home in Tipton, he said: "I am still doing exactly the same thing.

"I mix with the same chaps. I don't boast about what I've got. It's nice to have the money. It's nice to know that I've got it if I need it.

"But as long as I have my meals and can go to the pub, I am happy."

Mr Foden said his priority was to make sure his four grandchildren – Carl, Simon, Claire and Helen – were looked after.

He has also shared the money with his daughter Freda and two brothers, Bill and Ray.

"It has not gone to my head. I have not changed my life at all," he said.

"I have not talked about going on holiday. It does not bother me. I am not saying I would not go – if someone suggested it I would consider it.

"But I have not spent one penny on myself. I wanted to make sure everyone was sorted first."

Mr Foden and Mrs Harper, a full-time carer for her husband Barry, bought their lucky ticket from Costcutter in High Street, Princes End, where lottery machines had only been installed weeks before.

The £3.9m windfall topped off a wonderful weekend for Mrs Harper, who marked her 39th wedding anniversary on the day of the win and had just celebrated her 60th birthday. Mr Foden says he noticed Sandwell Council hiked his rent from about £70-a-week to £93-a-week after the win. But he said he has not complained.

"I never told them I had won – it just went up," he said.

"But I don't mind. Over the years they have treated me right." People are skill keen to shake Mr Foden's hand when they see him in and around Tipton. "I still get people coming up to me and saying congratulations," he said.

"There are some people who would not give me the time of day before who are really nice to me now. They stop and say 'hello' and 'how are you?'.

"You get the odd or two who are jealous. But it does not bother me. I take no notice. There are some who have not spoke to me since I won."

Remarkably Mr Foden says he still likes a flutter on the lottery and he says he has won £10 on several occasions.

"If it's a rollover I generally put a fiver on," he added.

"I don't know if I will win again. It would be nice if I did. I like having a bet."

The pair joined a string of big winners from the region in recent years.

Tom and Rita Naylor, originally from?Darlaston, were the biggest, scooping £15.6 million in 2001.

In 2006, Dudley grandmother-of-nine Brenda Portch won £1.4m while, in the same year, West Bromwich Albion fans Mick and Josie Timmins netted a £3 million win.

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