Plasterer Ken Jones and his partner, Jackie Pike, just couldn’t believe their luck when on the very day they scooped £117,703 on The National Lottery – Jackie’s mum was given the all-clear from a cancer scare.

After discovering they had won a small fortune in the Lotto draw on Wednesday July 24, self-employed Ken, 58, and Post Office worker Jackie, 55, who live in Malmesbury, didn’t initially feel like celebrating.

They were hesitant as Jackie’s mum, Mary Davies, 82, had a hospital appointment later the same day and were waiting to receive some important test results.

But once Mary received her own good news that she was clear of cancer, the winning couple couldn’t wait to break out the champagne to mark their double dose of good fortune.

Keen angler Ken, who fishes off his own canal narrow boat, said: “To have found out we’d won the lottery on the same day that Mary received her medical results meant that we had two fantastic reasons to celebrate.

“Winning this money will just make life a little bit easier and allow me to cut back on the hours I work as a plasterer. I think that our most extravagant purchase will be a motor home because I’ve always wanted one.”

Ken, whose narrow boat is moored on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Limpley Stoke, near Bath, scooped the prize after matching five numbers plus the bonus ball.

He buys tickets for both the weekly Lotto draws from the Malmesbury Co-op and chooses the same numbers each time. So, when he checked the results in his paper on Thursday he had a sneaking suspicion that he had at least a couple of numbers.

Jackie, who works at Malmesbury Post Office, said: “I couldn’t believe it when Ken told me how much money he’d won. To be honest, I thought he hadn’t put his glasses on when he checked his numbers!”

Ken’s winning numbers were – 22, 26, 30, 42, 47 and Bonus Ball 4.