Off the buses!

FORMER bus driver Sean Lloyd and wife Melanie and their £1,804,955 cheque

A LUCKY Oldham bus driver is certain a shiny penny led to his cool £1.8million win.

Sean Lloyd (48) had just finished a shift when he popped into the shop - Oldham News on Huddersfield Road - to buy a ticket.

He picked up a shiny penny on the pavement as he went in and rubbed it on the ticket “just for luck”..

Hours later Sean was a millionaire!

He said: “My wife Melanie checked her ticket before she went to bed. I hadn’t told her I had an extra ticket. I checked it later and couldn’t believe it when I realised.”

Melanie (51) said: “I couldn’t believe it. We started to celebrate and Sean stayed up with our eldest son until 4am. I went to bed early - I had work the next day.”

The couple, from Ashton, have four children — Dwayne (27), Serena (24), Zack (16) and Kieron (14), who have already been putting in their wish lists!

But their parents got first choice - and that included Sean quitting his bus driving job almost immediately.

He said: “I rang up my manager and said ‘can you cover my shift for the rest of my life?’

“I will miss the job because I have really enjoyed the people, but I don’t plan on going back.”

Melanie intends to continue working part-time as a social services support worker - and already has a replacement job for Sean lined up!

Melanie said: “We have been desperate to do up the house and now Sean can finally finish it!”