A COUPLE who won £1m on the lottery on Christmas Day are planning to take their first holiday abroad.

Ian McCarthy, 48, and his wife Kim, 50, won the money in the EuroMillions Millionaire raffle draw, but did not know about it until last week.

Despite now being millionaires, the couple from Fatfield, Washington, who have two sons aged 20 and 26, are not giving up their jobs.

They do intend to take a holiday, possibly in Florida, having only got their passports last year.

Mr McCarthy has worked in the axle plant at Nissan for 25 years and his wife has worked as a bingo supervisor for over ten years.

He said: “She was mid-game when I arrived at her work to give her the good news, but I couldn’t interrupt the live game so asked to see her in private.

"When I told her that we’d won on the EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle she thought I was having a laugh and then the realisation that it was true hit home.

"She couldn’t believe it either so we had our ticket verified at the local supermarket. We were all over the moon with excitement.”

Mr McCarthy said he did not check his winning ticket for two weeks.

He said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was doing a bit of DIY when I thought I’d take a break and just check my numbers on our son Jonathon’s computer.

"I don’t even normally check my numbers at home. I usually leave it for a few weeks and then take all my tickets to check at the newsagents in one go but this time I checked myself.

"I couldn’t believe it and neither could Jonathon so we went to see our other son Anthony who lives nearby and got him to double check.

"The look on their faces was a picture. They both work with me at Nissan and the thought that we’d potentially won a life changing amount of money was overwhelming.

"We were all so excited. It felt surreal.”

On Christmas Day in 2010, Paul and Christine Goldie, also from Washington, won more £3.5m on the Lotto.

Event technician Andy Garth, from Middlesbrough, also celebrated landing £1m in the EuroMillions raffle on Christmas Day.