By Cheryl Wood and Mark McLaughlin

DUNDEE GOLF fanatic Mark Page is looking forward to spending much time reducing his 18 handicap to scratch after collecting a massive cheque for £4,771,402 at St Andrews yesterday for hitting the Lotto jackpot.

The life-changing sum was made possible by the ticket he bought at his local Co-op in the city being the only one to have all six numbers—12, 23, 25, 26, 34 and 49—in Saturday’s draw.

The 37-year-old golf enthusiast celebrated his win at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews.

Mark and partner Carol (44) are deciding how to spend the win as well as coming to terms with the changes it will make.

The couple plan to provide a nest egg for their children Lisa (19) and Graham (16) and top of Mark’s shopping list is a turbo- charged Audi RS4. The family are also dreaming of experiencing tropical life with holidays in the Bahamas and Hawaii.

Mark, a radio technician with Nessco Invsat Telecommunications, who moved to Scotland while serving with the RAF, bought his life-changing ticket at the Co-op, in St Boswells Terrace, Dundee, while walking the dog on Saturday morning.

He put the ticket in a glass dolphin-etched vase on the mantelpiece for safekeeping.

Mark said, “We were watching TV on Saturday night when the adverts came on so I decided to check my numbers.

“I took my ticket and checked my numbers on Teletext. When I saw that we had all six, I didn’t know what to do, so I looked at them again on Ceefax, too. I couldn’t believe it.

“To be honest I’m still in shock. I can’t wait to start my new life on the fairways and become a scratch golfer.

“My parents, who live in Stafford, will be retiring soon and this win means they will enjoy a very happy retirement. I always said it would be great to win. To have won £4.7 million really is a dream come true.”

While Mark has his eye on the Audi, Lisa wants a horse and Graham, who is still at school, a guitar.

Neither Mark nor Carol had informed their workplaces of the big win as they went public yesterday.

Mark said “early retirement springs to mind” but Carol said she had yet to decide.

They intend to keep their feet on the ground and stay in their home close to friends in Dundee.

Mark said, “This means we are financially secure but at the end of the day I will still be the person I have always been.

“We have the money to do what we want to do but we don’t want to rub people’s noses in it.

“We like the house we are in and we like the area but you can never gauge what people’s reactions are going to be.

“If it gets to the stage we have to move we will look at it then.”

Mark also plans to give some of his winnings to a charity which helped a friend’s granddaughter before she died recently of leukaemia.

He also said border collie Misty would be getting a big bone as a treat.

Staff at the busy St Mary’s Co-op thought it was a wind-up when they first heard a ticket bought at the store had made one of their customers a multi-millionaire.

Area manager Linda Simpson said, “The staff at the shop are buzzing on the news.

“I think the fact that it’s somebody local really adds to it.

“As one of the staff said to me, it’s not the sort of thing that happens to people in St Mary’s.

Linda added, “She also said that when she first got the call about it, she thought it was one of her colleagues winding her up.

“I’m sure there will be one or two people in the area who will be jealous, but I think most folk will take the attitude of ‘good on him,’ somebody local winning a life-changing amount of money.”

The area manager said the shop was always busy with people buying tickets.

She added, “Maybe that’s the shop’s luck run out with this, but hopefully there will be a few extra people buying tickets there to try and get lucky, too.”

Mark’s employers said they were unaware of his big win.

“He’s not been in the office this week so this is the first I’ve heard about it,” said Dawn Murray, a manager with Nessco Invsat.

“My reaction is shock, but well done to him. Now we’ll just have to see what happens about him coming back to work!”

The head of the Tayside Children with Cancer and Leukaemia (TCCL) charity last night said she was delighted the group were in line for a windfall, writes Graham Huband.

Chairwoman Vicki Low—who became involved with TCCL when her late daughter Amy was ill—said any money donated would go to a worthy cause.

The Lotto winner became aware of TCCL through Amy’s grandparents Lillian and Stanley Milne, who he regularly meets while walking dog Misty.

Lillian said yesterday, “Misty and our dog Bruno are great pals— Mark is always feeding Bruno biscuits and treats.

“He knew all about Amy being ill and regularly asked about her so it is good to hear that he’s thinking about us.”

Vicki said all monies donated to TCCL were used to enhance the lives of young people affected by cancer and ease the strain on family members.

She said, “TCCL has been going since 1994 and does lots of different things for children (with cancer and leukaemia) under-21 years.

“We do things like provide grants for birthdays and Christmas and we also take them on outings.”

“We also try to help to help people cover some of the costs they experience.”