MOST people would say Edwin Chester is one of the luckiest men alive.

Last week the 56-year-old retired bricklayer from Penwortham, Preston, scooped £165,765 on the National Lottery - just three years ago he netted £27,000 on the Pools!

But he doesn't consider himself lucky! He says he 'lost' £47,000 two years ago when he forgot to pay his weekly Pool coupon, and his numbers came up. And he nearly missed his big windfall last week, as he thought he'd lost his ticket.

Edwin told the Citizen: "I couldn't find my ticket so forgot about it. Then opened a book later on and it fell out. I asked my wife Marlene to check the numbers.

"When it sank in we sat up celebrating until 4am."

He has vowed to carry on doing the Pools and the lottery every week at his local corner shop Cook & Nuttall, Leyland Road, where he's bought all his winning tickets so far.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.