A key worker, who helped to save a police officer’s life amid the coronavirus lockdown, has won £1 million in the EuroMillions lottery
Anthony Canty gave saved the life of a police officer back in April, when he performed CPR after the officer collapsed on a bus in Essex.
The father-of-two is a key-worker and has been working throughout the lockdown as an engineer, to maintain the water quality for hospitals and care homes throughout central London.
Mr Canty has said that he has now told the police officer of his EuroMillions win on the 5th of May, who has since recovered in hospital.
“He said ‘good karma happens to good people’,” said the 33-year-old from Maldon.
In April a self-employed joiner from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, has said that his parents could finally retire after he won a Jackpot of £58,366,487.
Mr Canty came to the help of the policeman, who had just finished his shift, while he was also travelling home from work on a bus between Witham train station and Maldon one evening.
“We were just on our way home one evening, just talking and he just dropped down… in my lap,” Mr Canty said.
Mr Canty said that he rang the bell in order bring the bus to a stop, before he then performed CPR on the police officer with the help of a 999 operator, as well as first aid training he had received from his work.
The officer was then airlifted to a hospital, where he spent five days in an intensive care unit.
Mr Canty said that he stayed in touch with the police officer’s partner while he was in the ICU and dropped off fruit and flowers, he then stayed in with the man following his recovery.
“I phoned him on the win and he said ‘good karma happens to good people’,” he said.
Mr Canty’s partner Katie Sullivan, 32, said:
“He said that Anthony’s part of his family now.”
“He said he’s forever grateful as if it weren’t for Anthony he wouldn’t be here today. It’s just amazing.”
Katie, who has been with Anthony for 12 years and is a mother to their two daughters aged eight and five, said that Anthony had initially thought he won £100,000.
Mr Canty rang Miss Sullivan while he was on the train journey into work after he saw his winning ticket on the National Lottery mobile phone app.
“I called Katie to tell her the good news but she wouldn’t believe me and thought I was winding her up, so I gave her the numbers to check for herself,” said Mr Canty.
“I heard her log on and then she started screaming, and said ‘You div, it’s one million, we’re millionaires, you have to come home!'”
After learning that he was to become a millionaire, Anthony took the day off work to let the news sink in, and then him and Katie celebrated with a bottle of Prosecco in the garden before they went on to share the news with their friends and family.
Mr Canty has said that he will continue to work at his job, which often requires a commute into London by train and taking the Tube, he has recently been using an earlier service to try and abide by social distancing.
“I do know that I’m not giving up work, I like it and I’m proud of what we do so I’m definitely not giving that up,” he said.
“Although I will be taking some time off when it’s safe to fly again so we can take the girls to Disneyland.”
“We may think about moving to a new house in the future but our main priority is to invest the money wisely so that our girls will be financially secure.”
Recently a man from Australia who lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic, won a lottery total of $4.8 million (about £2.5 million).
