Bank holiday to remember for Livingston Forth 1 winner

A Livingston nursery practitioner is celebrating after landing a life-changing £790,000 in Forth 1’s Make Me A Winner competition.

Jessica Henderson (51) received the surprise call from Make Me A Winner presenter Gemma Atkinson last Friday shortly after arriving home from work ahead of the bank holiday weekend.

The mother-of-two, who is married to Christopher (53) said she is struggling to take it all in after scooping the huge prize: “I’m still in complete shock and honestly can’t remember much from Friday night at all.  I had just got home from work and was looking forward to the bank holiday weekend when the phone rang - I was home on my own and then about five minutes later Christopher came in and I just fell to the floor crying!”

With Christopher initially fearing the call was too good to be true, as the news sunk in, Jessica has had a little time to process their good fortune and despite the life-changing windfall, says she has no plans to give up the job she loves:

“I work as a pre-school assistant and I adore it. It’s chaotic and crazy but absolutely  amazing. I do it for the love of the job and there’s no way I’d want to do anything else.”

The family now hopes to use the money to pay off their mortgage and finally enjoy some long-awaited travel adventures.

Jessica continued: “Even just paying the house off will be incredible. Being able to travel more would be the absolute dream - we’d love to go to Greece or Italy and Canada has always been the ultimate destination for me.”

Jessica, who was born in Texas and still has family in California, spent time in South Africa, before the couple eventually settled in Livingston after deciding they wanted a more stable future for their children.

She continued: “We had friends in London, but it just wasn’t for us. We have always loved Edinburgh and the first place that would allow us to keep our pets happened to be in Livingston. We couldn’t have hoped to settle anywhere better - the schools have been wonderful and the children have been so happy growing up here.”

With their eldest daughter (21) preparing to start university in Edinburgh later this year, their youngest (12) is just finishing primary school.

Jessica laughed: “Our 21-year-old has already spent the money in her head, but we’ll definitely be putting money aside for both girls before we think about treating ourselves - our youngest didn’t really understand what was happening at all.”

The family spent the bank holiday weekend celebrating quietly as the reality slowly began to sink in: “At the moment I’m still too scared to really do anything. We’re still processing it all and t just feels crazy and amazing - it’s simply a dream come true.”

You could be a winner too! Go to makemeawinner.co.uk or listen to your favourite radio station on the Rayo app for your chance to win a life-changing amount of money this Friday (May 8).