Lisa Cannings, a language teacher at Hampton College in the UK, has just been named as the winner of a $44.6 million rollover Lotto jackpot. But she has not allowed the news to interfere with important school business.

“All my marking is up to date,” Ms Cannings said, revealing that she had not yet decided whether or not she will give up her job.

Ms Cannings’ husband, Gerry, a retired history teacher, saw a poster advertising the rollover when he went to buy fish and chips. “I thought, well, why not?” he said. So he bought five lucky-dip tickets. “And one of them turned out to be lucky.”

However, the Canningses did not cash their winning check for another week.

“I know it sounds mad,” Ms Cannings said, “but we had a guy in to paint the whole house. We’d been planning it for ages and had packed everything into boxes. We just thought it would be easier to wait.”

Mr Cannings therefore carried the winning ticket in his wallet for almost a week. “It’s just the way we are - we don’t really worry about things or make a drama,” he said. “You could say we’re a bit boring like that.”

In a small act of non-boring rebellion, however, Ms Canning took a sick day on Monday. She then phoned her school on Tuesday, shortly before Lotto held a press conference to break the news.