£148 million lottery winner is selling Christmas trees

Adrian Bayford, who won a staggering £148 million on the EuroMillions lottery in 2012, with his then-wife Gillian (pictured), has set up a pop-up business selling Christmas trees from his country pile in Haverhill, Suffolk.

The Sun reported that Bayford, 44, is manning the business, and even carrying to trees to customers' cars. He is doing a brisk trade in trees - which cost anything up to £50.

Why?
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It's highly unlikely that Bayford needs the cash. His astonishing win in 2012 was the second largest lottery win in British history at the time. His fortune took a bit of a hit when he and his wife Gillian divorced, and the couple shared the joint win between them.

However, aside from buying a £6 million property, he has avoided blowing piles of cash on living the high life. His most high-profile purchase wasn't a fleet of fancy cars or a private jet - but an arena, horses, and a number of horseboxes, to enable his fiancé, Samantha Burbidge (28) to run a business.

Adrian also famously loves to work. After the win, he initially said he wanted to continue running his music shop, until too much unwanted attention forced him to shut up shop. For someone who loves the buzz of buying and selling, Christmas trees are a brilliant option, as they give him the chance to do what he loves, get into the festive spirit, and be done and dusted by the time the unwanted attention makes the business hard to run.

Continue working

Adrian is not alone. There are plenty of lottery winners who decide to continue working after a win. Admittedly not all of them have the kind of wealth he has, but many of them do it for the love of their job, the friendship of their colleagues, and to give them a reason to get up in the morning - rather than because they need the money.

In November 2013, Sutton grandfather Ron Elliott won almost £8 million on the National Lottery and went to work the next day. The 67-year-old said he had no plans to give up his £15,000-a-year job in a care home, because his patients needed him around.

Grandmother Jean Swatman from Lowestoft in Suffolk, initially continued making doughnuts for Morrisons after winning £2 million on the National Lottery. The 63-year-old only eventually decided to retire eight months later, when the prospect of not having to scrape the ice off her car at 5am was too tempting to resist.

And one of the most famous examples was Luke Pittard from Wales, who won £1.3 million in 2006. After buying a house, taking a holiday and getting married, he decided he'd had enough rest, so returned to work as a trainer for McDonalds. He said: "To be honest, there's only so much relaxing you can do."