DETERMINED Arrol Toplin was so keen to appear on ITV's Who Wants to be a Millionaire that he phoned the quiz show 20 times a day.

The 54-year-old Chesham man finally made it on to the programme on Monday night, and won £125,000.

But Arrol came unstuck just three questions from £1 million when he faced the question 'what is lentigo?'

The four options were a) mole b) freckle c) beauty spot d) tattoo.

He had to phone a friend but had failed to include a doctor among the five he could call in his stress moments.

Mr Toplin, a Canadian who has lived in Britain for 27 years, told the Free Press: "I said on the programme I didn't choose the right phone a friend, but speaking to him later, it turns out the doctor didn't know the answer anyway, which turned out to be freckle.

"When I got up for the 'fastest finger first' I was told I looked utterly grey. Watching it back on video, I really did look grey, like I was about to have a heart attack."

He applied for the show after his mum, who had come over from Canada, saw the show and urged him to go on.

He said: "To get on the show I rang 50 or 60 times over three days.

"I knew that was how Judith Keppell did it."

Arrol had aimed to take home £16,000 from the programme to put his daughters Verity, 16, and Beshlie,19, through university.

Both Arrol and his wife Maggie are to carry on in their jobs.

He adds: "When I saw the question I knew I didn't know it.

"I wasn't going to take the chance on a whim. I just wanted to take the money and get out of there."

Arrol Toplin is keen to share his luck with Free Press readers.

He has set a question for the chance to win three Who Wants to be a Millionaire games from Eidos, and three books courtesy of Ottakar's in High Wycombe.

The question is: What is Glebe? Is it a) quartz rock b) a bird c) church land d) glacier formation.

Send your answers to reporter Victoria Birch, Gomm Road, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP13 7DW. Normal competition rules apply.