Some people are sure the dead can still lend a hand. Mark Francis, a Swansea delivery driver who won £1m on the EuroMillions, is one of them.
Mark, from Birchgrove, says he spoke to his late father out loud one evening between Christmas and New Year, during the pandemic, when he was feeling low. “Help me out, Dad,” he said.
A few days later, on 4 January 2022, the UK Millionaire Maker code on his EuroMillions ticket came up, and he was £1,000,000 richer.
‘Help me out, Dad’: the four words before Mark’s £1m EuroMillions win
It wasn’t a ritual before a draw, Mark says, in answers passed on to Swansea Bay News. He asked his dad for help that one time, and he’s convinced his dad answered.
He has good reason to think his dad would step in, he says. Everyone knew him, and he was the man people went to when they had a problem to sort out.
Mark still talks to him about everyday things, sport included.
The win nearly passed him by. He found out on his first day isolating with Covid, when an email told him he’d won a prize but he could see only one matching number, the National Lottery said at the time.
He rang to check, and was told he’d matched the Millionaire Maker code.
He said then: “I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t, it’s been such a whirlwind.”
A sign in the loft: the Swansea City flag waiting at the family’s new home
The money bought the family what Mark calls their forever home. When they moved in, they found a huge Swansea City flag left in the loft by the previous owner.
Mark and his dad were both big Swans fans. Mark believes his dad had a hand in guiding them to that house, and says it was meant to be theirs.
Back in 2022 he wanted more room for the grandchildren to come and stay, and a decent garden for Gryff, the couple’s cavapoo puppy. “We don’t want to leave the area, we love it here,” he said.
Ospreys season ticket holder will be at St Helen’s for the Dragons tonight
Mark has an Ospreys season ticket and goes to every game. Tonight he’ll be at the rebuilt St Helen’s for the Ospreys’ first game there, against the Dragons (7pm).
He and his partner Helen are planning to follow the British and Irish Lions to New Zealand in 2029. “I’ve always said I’d like to watch the Ospreys play away again but now, the world’s my oyster,” he said when he won.
Still driving for a car parts firm four years after his EuroMillions win
Four years on, Mark still drives deliveries for a car parts firm and has no plans to stop. He wants the structure, he says, and a comfortable retirement that doesn’t rest on the win alone.
He said in 2022: “I really enjoy my job and I think I’d lose the plot if I didn’t work.”
Earlier this year, 15 former Tata Steel colleagues in Port Talbot shared £1m through the same Millionaire Maker code.
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