As Mark and David Funnell smashed their champagne flutes together in a toast, the joy of the moment was even sweeter for knowing how far they had both come from heartbreak and pain.

The brothers stood side by side in the sunshine, grinning identical grins and looking disbelievingly at each other with a matching twinkle in their eyes.

The pair had always shared everything and this day was no exception.

They were there for each other on the best day of their lives, just as they had been there for each other through the hard times.

For Mark, 32, the dream-come-true moment of winning the Lotto jackpot was a world away from the despair he felt six months ago.

He said: "Last winter I had really run out of money. I was in a bad way financially, even wondering how I was going to scrape the cash together to buy food.

"I couldn't pay my bills and I was having to write to people to tell them. The debts were just mounting up."

At the time, David, 38, supported his younger brother through his financial worries. Memories of his own hard times were still fresh in his mind.

For him, winning the £3,614,444 jackpot was the culmination of a nine-year battle to get back on his feet after the collapse of his business in Spain.

David met his partner Gaynor, 40, after he went out to live in Spain 15 years ago.

Now they are settled and living together with Gaynor's daughters Jasmine, 12, and Hannah, ten, and David's 13-year-old daughter Kimberley. When they first got together it was under turbulent circumstances.

Gaynor said: "I moved out to Spain with my husband at the time and I met David out there. We both got divorced out there and then David brought me home."

The couple had to go through a lot to stay together. As David said: "Times were very hard back then. We lost everything out in Spain.

"When we came back we had to start from scratch, get a new mortgage, new jobs. It was tough."

No bad memory could taint the euphoria both brothers felt the moment they knew they had won the Lotto.

It was David who first discovered their numbers had come up. He was watching television with Gaynor in their three-bedroom Upper Dicker semi-detached home on Wednesday evening when he decided to check the Lotto result.

The first person David called was his brother, who was having a night in at his Willingdon studio flat.

The brothers chose a line of numbers each when the National Lottery was launched in 1994 and have been playing the same ones together ever since.

Already used to sharing everything, the brothers wanted to be part of each other's good fortune if one became a winner.

David's numbers were carefully thought through, fixing on important dates and birthdays. Mark's numbers - 18, 21, 32, 36, 39 and 41 - were completely random.

David bought the winning ticket from a service station in Lewes but it was Mark's numbers that won.

He said: "When David phoned to tell me we had won, I thought 'no, what is he on about?' Our conversation after that was unprintable. The builders' language really came out.

"I just lost it a bit after that. David phoned round and told our mum and dad but I didn't know what to do with myself."

As far as Mark's workmates are concerned, the cliche was true - it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Mark, a bricklayer like his brother, works at Eastbourne building firm Home Development.

His cousin and workmate Jeremy Wheatley, from Willingdon, said: "He is such a lovely guy. I feel a bit emotional about it all really.

"It's so brilliant and I'm so happy for him because he really deserves it.

"But we are also sad because we have lost our workmate.

"He is the life and soul of the firm. I'm really going to miss him.

"David used to be my work partner too and he deserves it just as much.

"They know what it's like to have nothing, and that is what makes it so sweet.

"To me, it's like the Trotters winning the lottery - and David is definitely Del Boy."

Although the brothers plan to give up work in the future, they don't want to let anyone down.

Mark said he felt sad about leaving behind his workmates, while David has vowed to carry on for now.

He said: "I'm on a job at the moment that I have to finish. I want to keep my feet on the ground and I don't want to let the person down. I have dug half his house up, I can't leave it like that."

When he does give up work, David plans to build a family home in the East Sussex countryside.

During the past eight years, Mark and David have often discussed what they would spend their fortune on if they won.

Now it has actually happened, they have all sorts of plans - but only one is definite.

In all the time they dreamed about winning, the one thing they agreed they wanted was a beautiful boat, in which to while away the summer afternoons.

They already have a little fishing vessel, which they take out together on angling trips.

Now they will be able to buy something much more magnificent, and every time they sail in it they will remember the moment they won - together.

As David said: "We are not just brothers, we are best mates too. I wouldn't want to sail off into the sunset without taking Mark - and now I won't have to."