A FAMILY from Dartford is celebrating after winning almost £8m on the lottery.

Fleet Road resident Ted Newton bought a lucky dip ticket on behalf of himself and his wife Marilyn and their children Darren, Sarah and Stephen, and he matched all six numbers in Wednesday's (July 8) Lotto Rollover draw, winning the £7,985,672 jackpot.

They held a press conference at the Hilton Dartford Bridge hotel, Crossways Boulevard, this morning

Retired foreman Ted, aged 69, said: "I never usually get a ticket for Wednesdays but somewhere saw it was a rollover and thought I'd give it a go.

"I sat down with the paper on Thursday lunchtime and decided to check the numbers and slowly ticked each one off."

Marilyn, 65, added: "He came to me and said we're missing the last one, but that was the bonus and I said we don't need it.

"We both checked it and checked it. You never expect something like this, you just do it and hope."

Stephen, a builder aged 34, Darren, a warehouse worker aged 39, and Sarah, a legal secretary aged 36, all said they would likely continue in their jobs and would not let the money change them.

Avalanche tragedy

At the press conference, Ted announced the family would donate £3,000 - the money his children owe him for all the lottery tickets he has bought for them - to Mountain Rescue.

This is because the charity rescued Stephen and his wife Sarah, who now have two children, after they were trapped in an avalanche which killed four of their friends in December 1998.

The couple had gone to the Scottish highlands with a group of 12 other friends to celebrate Hogmany.

But tragedy struck when the couple and four of the group, who were all Venture Scouts leaders, decided to take in a two day winter skills course in the mountains of Aonach Mor, Lochaber, near Fort William.

Stephen became trapped in an avalanche that killed Emma Wray, 29, her boyfriend Paul Hopkins, 28, Matthew Lewis, 28, and Ian Edwards, 30, all from Kent.

He survived along with Sarah after being found by rescuers buried under three feet of compacted snow.

'Money won't change our personalities'

Stephen says he and his brother Darren and sister Sarah, a mother of one, have no plans to leave the north Kent area or let the money change them.

He said: “Money can change our life but it won’t change our personalities. We’re still the same people. I think we're all going to keep working."

Ted and Marilyn say they have often struggled for money, but they have no plans to now become extravagant spenders or move away from Dartford, where they have lived together for more than 40 years.

However, Mrs Newton has already realised a lifelong dream.

She said: “I’d always wanted to be able to go into a shop without having to worry about how much everything cost.

"On Sunday I went and bought a new outfit from an outlet store, and I didn’t even look at the price tag.”