Kevin West from Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh won €15,000 on the National Lottery’s Million Euro Challenge game show on RTE on Saturday 10 January 2015. Pictured at the presentation of prizes are from left to right: Dermot Griffin, Chief Executive, the National Lottery; Kevin West the winning player; Kevin’s Son Oliver who was his guest support on the show and Million Euro Challenge Host Nicky Byrne. The winning ticket was bought from SPA XL, Main Street, Swanlinbar, Co. Cavan.
POPULAR retired lorry driver, Kevin West (86), from Newtownbutler, had loads of family support last week when he travelled up to Dublin with his eldest son, Oliver to take part in the new Million Euro Challenge on RTE.
He came away with €15,000.
A father of 13, Kevin is 49 times a grandfather and 47 times a great grandfather, three of his great grandchildren being born in the two weeks between the call-up from RTE and the recording of the show.
Described by his daughter, Lorraine as ‘bingo mad’, Kevin at least had form for this novel experience.
It was the second time the family has been on a National Lottery game show. His son, Gabriel was a contestant on the National Lottery’s Saturday night game show three years ago when he spun the wheel and won €25,000.
His winning scratch card ticket was bought for him by his son, Oliver, so while father and son took to the stage, the rest of the family – they travelled by bus – were in the audience, lending their vocal support.
“It was a big honour for dad to get on the show”, Lorraine explained. “It was an experience for him. They treated him well.
We all followed up in the bus. Oliver had to go on the stage with dad because he was the buyer of the winning ticket.”
Kevin is married to Evelyn. He is a father of 13, grandfather to 49 and great grandfather to 47 children.
His children are: Oliver, Gerry, Bernadette, Gabriel, Christina, Cecelia, James, Niall, Lorraine, Rosario, Mel and the late Pauline and Robert.
A Pioneer, he goes to bingo maybe five nights a week with his wife and he loves dancing. In fact,all the family are competent Irish dancers.
The winning ticket was bought from SPA XL store, Main Street, Swanlinbar, Co. Cavan.
Million Euro Challenge Scratch Cards offer players the chance to win instant prizes of up to €50,000.
Three players will be selected each week to appear on The Million Euro Challenge TV Gameshow and one lucky player has the chance to win up to €1 million instantly.
Last week was the first gameshow of the National Lottery’s new-look million euro challenge. The three players, from Cork, Fermanagh and Louth won cash prizes to the value of €64,000.
Kathleen Bailey from Cork played on behalf of her son Michael Paul Bailey and went on to play the Million Euro Challenge game and won a total of €33,000.
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