Adam Lopez, a forklift driver from the village of Mattishall in Norfolk, England had some £12.40 (or nearly $17) in July when he bought ‘five scratch-off lottery tickets for £5 each from a corner store near Norwich’ as PEOPLE reported.
However, what he did not expect was winning the prize money of £1,000,012.40 (or more than $1.3 million). His bank balance changed overnight and so did his way of life. Talking about his reaction after winning, Lopez told The National Lottery, “When I saw the £1M I didn’t know what to do with myself, so shoved the scratchcard in the glovebox without even thinking.”
He further added, “I always thought I’d scream if I ever won big, but when it actually happened I was stunned into complete silence! Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen to me, I feel so blessed. I’ve given myself a budget to have fun, a pot to treat people I love and the rest I’m saving for the future.”
Unfortunately having fun led to dire consequences for Lopez as he suffered major health issues after partying for three months. The man not only partied but also made sure to fulfil the dreams and wishes of his loved ones as well since he went to Barbados for a family trip. He also got a Range Rover for his mother and himself.
While life was going great for Lopez, his reality check came when he fell sick. As reported by PEOPLE, Lopez got a “bilateral pulmonary embolism after getting a blood clot in his leg that then spread to his lungs.”
He had also left his job after he won the lottery and it turned out to be a decision that he regretted later. Talking to BBC about the same, Lopez said, “I left my job and I never should have done that. I lost the structure to my life and day to day living … it was a complete disconnect from the life I was living.”
– Adam Lopez is a 39-year-old forklift driver from Mattishall, near Norwich, UK.
– Before winning, Lopez had £12.40 in his bank account.
– In July 2025, Lopez won £1 million on a National Lottery scratch-off ticket, bringing his balance to £1,000,012.40.
– Immediately after… pic.twitter.com/gsVvwSr7HN— Revelation of 👺 &🍕 (@most271k) October 6, 2025
With the huge amount of money in his account, Lopez could afford a life that he could barely dream of previously. In his own words, “It’s allowed me to live a bit of a life I’ve never lived, but I think I went the wrong way about it. It was enjoyable until my health became an issue.”
He further added, “I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t breathe. I rang the ambulance, I got wheeled into the ambulance from my house and the biggest life-changing thing I had was laying in the back of that ambulance and hearing the sirens.”
Lopez had to spend more than eight days at the Norfolk & Norwich University hospital and that incident brought him back to reality. Talking about how it served as his “wake up call”, Lopez said, “It just makes you look at both sides of life because it doesn’t matter if you have a million, 100 million, a billion, a trillion — when you’re in the back of the ambulance, none of it matters.”
His words show how getting a huge amount of money all of a sudden might not be a great thing for everyone as a structure is much needed for a healthy and happy life in the long run.
