MOTHER-and-son lottery winners Kay and Andy Kirby are rejecting a luxury lifestyle to set up an open-all-hours family shop in York.

The lucky twosome have sunk their share of a £2.1 million syndicate win into the new business in Acomb.

And they are now hoping lottery operators Camelot will let them install a lottery terminal in the Gale Lane shop, so a bit of their luck will rub off on customers.

Kay, 54, and Andy, 31, were members of the 13-strong syndicate from the Costcutter 10 O'Clock Shop in Poppleton Road who won £167,000 each back in October.

In November, Andy decided to use his winnings to buy the lease on the 10 O'Clock Shop from fellow syndicate member and shop owner Jim Douglas, but because of a mix-up over the lease he had to drop out.

The disappointment plunged him into a period of depression and illness in the weeks before Christmas last year.

But when his wife, Adele, 29, spotted the empty shop in Gale Lane, round the corner from where she grew up, things started looking up.

Andy and Adele have now bought the shopfor an undisclosed sum and will be living above it with their sons, David, 11, Simon, eight, and Craig, six. Kay and dad Malcolm have a half-share in the business.

Residents welcomed the re-opening of the general stores and off licence which Ronald Potter, of Gale Lane, said had been closed for about 18 months.

His wife, Audrey, said: "We're very pleased it's opening up - we're quite a long way from any shops at the moment."

And neighbour Margaret Butler said: "I hope it's a success because they've spent a lot of money on alterations."

Kay, who retired as manageress of the 10 O'Clock Shop after the win, but got bored with being at home, said: "We've put it all into this shop, but we're going to get it all back - we might even be millionaires!"

She said she was not planning to go on holiday again for a long time because they would all be working round the clock.

Andy said he hoped the shop, which opens on Friday, Adele's 30th birthday, would give something back to the community and he would be offering customers cups of tea and lifts home with their shopping.

"And we're not going to give up until we get a lottery terminal!" he said.

Since their lottery win, the family's only big purchases have been Kay's council house and her first holiday abroad to Lanzarote and Andy's new car and two seaside caravans.

Kay said: "We're still the same people, but while we used to get paid then work out whether we could afford to go out - now we can afford to go out for a meal when we feel like it."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.