A Lowestoft man is preparing for a life-changing Christmas after his National Lottery scratchcard made him an instant millionaire.

Jamie Grieve was spending an evening at home with his girlfriend Chez Carter when the pair decided to pop to the Co-op Store in Kessingland to pick up some snacks.

As they paid for their goods the 24-year-old decided on a whim to buy a festive Merry Millionaire card, not imagining for a second it would make him the town's youngest ever big winner.

He said: 'I only play scratchcards occasionally but when I do, I always reveal the prize right to left, so I can see the zeros being revealed first. On this one the first character I saw was an L and then another, which I thought was really weird, I even said to my girlfriend that there must be something wrong with the scratchcard. Then I revealed the full message of £1m and all hell broke loose.'

Mr Grieve, who lives with his parents, ran into the lounge to tell them the exciting news where they were quietly watching the television last Thursday evening.

His mum checked the ticket and confirmed his win, but not before his dad tried to convince him the ticket was fake.

'I couldn't believe it, I was so sure and there was my dad saying he was going to rip it up. I nearly burst into tears until he said he was only winding me up.'

With his winnings in the bank Mr Grieve has already bought his dream car, a Ford Focus RS and is planning to buy Miss Carter, 22, a Mini Cooper or Audi A1.

His mum has received a Mercedes 350M and he will be sending both his parents on an all-expenses paid trip to Texas to visit a family friend who they haven't seen in more than a decade.

Mr Grieve, who has been with Miss Carter for six years, is also planning to take her and their two best friends on holiday to the Caribbean next year.

As a self-confessed adrenalin junkie, Mr Grieve revealed the money will allow him to take up karting again, an expensive hobby, previously sidelined through lack of funds.

With his dad as team manager and mechanic, he plans to buy his own kart and begin racing at Ellough Park Raceway in Beccles where he used to work and where the lottery presentation took place.

Despite their incredible windfall, the couple are determined the money isn't going to change them, with both still remaining in their full time jobs.

Miss Carter returned to work as a sales assistant at a department store in Lowestoft just three days after the win and Mr Grieve, a parts supervisor at a car dealership in the town, has been helping his colleagues deal with the aftermath of last week's tidal surge.

He said: 'We were hit badly by the flooding so I've been in helping to clean up. I'm still going to carry on, I haven't got any plans to stop working. Next year we plan to start getting on the property ladder and in a couple of years we will think about building our own property.

'It's crazy, it still hasn't sunk in nearly a week on. You wake up still thinking that someone is going to pinch you. It's weird to wake up a normal person one day and the next day you're a millionaire.

'We don't want the money to change us, we are still such a young age and we have to take every advantage we can so we won't be out there wasting money on things we don't need.

'It's going to be a mad Christmas, but it's so nice to be able to enjoy it and know that we can go out and buy every present we would like to.'