After a tough year, dad wins £78k Aston Martin for just 20p in an online prize draw

A year out of work recovering from a hip replacement ended in style for Eugene Dunkley, who won a £78,000 Aston Martin for 20p.
Recovering from a hip replacement and unable to work, self-employed project manager Eugene Dunkley had been having a rough year. That was until he was handed the keys to a £78,000 Aston Martin he won in a prize draw for just 20p.

Eugene, from Hitchin in Hertfordshire, had no idea what to expect when a film crew from the online prize draw firm BOTB called him from outside his house and asked him to race home for a big surprise.

But the enormity quickly set in when BOTB's presenter Christian Williams walked him through a car park to show him the gleaming orange supercar and to hand him the key.

"No way! It's my dream car", Eugene exclaimed as he first set eyes on the £78,000 prize, a pristine 2018 model, with only 31,000 miles on the clock.

"I've had quite a year," he confessed as he drank in the Aston's gorgeous curves.

Eugene explained he'd had a hip replacement in February and missing a contract ahead of his operation meant he had been out of work for about a year.

Giving Eugene a hug to help suppress his emotions, Christian told him: "This is a lot of stress you've had, literally just instantly lifted. It's a big day for you. A massive day."

"My son is going to go bananas", Eugene quipped as he sat in the car for the first time and started up the 500bhp V8 engine.

It then dawned on Eugene, who spends no more than £2 a time on BOTB's prize draws, that he was about to be given the choice between keeping his dream car or taking a cash alternative of £55,000.

"Having the cash instead of the car would just break my heart, because I want to keep it. But the cash would come in really handy right now," he said.

BOTB gives away posh cars for peanuts every week, as well as lifestyle prizes and cash.

The latest grand prize on offer is brand new house in worth £880,000 in Suffolk with tickets priced at just 99p, or you could spend just 6p on the chance to win a supercharged Range Rover.

To find out more about the prizes on offer, click here.

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