Jackpot winner staying on the buses (From Chorley Citizen)

Jackpot winner staying on the buses

1:57pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in National News © Press Association 2011

A bus driver who won £2.3m on the lottery has said he won't quit his job because he would miss his colleagues.

Kevin Halstead, 46, has driven the same Stagecoach bus every day for the last 17 years - the 125 from Bolton to Preston.

He said: "I don't want to pack my job in. I asked my boss for time off, a month maybe two, but I don't want to cut myself off from my friends and I really enjoy my job. Maybe I will go part-time."

Mr Halstead, from Chorley, Lancashire, won £2,302,668 when his regular numbers - 23, 25, 28, 33, 44, and 49 - all came up.

It was half of the jackpot from last Saturday's draw, which he watched live with his mother Joyce, 68, at her house in Eccleston, Lancashire.

"My mum said 'turn on the telly we could be millionaires'.

"I jumped up and said 'we've done the jackpot, Mum, do you want a bungalow?" he said.

The Liverpool FC fan lives with his long-term partner Josephine Jones, 43, a care worker.

She has never been on holiday and Mr Halstead said he will buy her a passport so he can whisk her away.

He has also promised a pony to his 14-year-old daughter, Jessica, he said.