A gran has became a millionaire after doubling her chances of a win when she popped to her local shop and bought two scratch cards - only to end up winning them both.
Sandy Doyle has scooped over £1million after the double success, which left her gobsmacked. The first lottery scratch card netted her £1million but Sandy did not believe what she was seeing so she set it to one side and played the second one.
She bagged £10 on it, and glanced back at the first to realise that it too was a definite and significant winner.
The lucky 58-year-old retired from her warehouse job immediately so that she has more time to care for her father. She says that she cannot wait to spoil her loved ones with the winnings.
Sandy, from Salisbury, said: “I’ll be helping out my two daughters and my grandkids too, I think the first treat for us all will be a trip to the beach for Easter holidays where we can have fun and take some time to plan the future.”
Sandy’s exciting future began when she popped to the local shop early on Sunday morning to pick up a copy of the paper and treated herself to two Match A Million National Lottery Scratch Cards, WiltshireLive reports.
“Once home I popped the kettle on for a cup of coffee and decided to scratch my scratch cards,” she said. “When I revealed the £1MIL sign on the first Match A Million, I didn’t believe it so I put it to one side, and played the other. I saw I had won £10 on that scratch card, which I did believe!
“I then looked back at the other one, rubbed my eyes and signed the back just in-case. I’m an early riser so it was nerve-wracking waiting for the National Lottery phone lines to open at 9am. I called one of my daughters who didn’t believe me - to be fair, I’m not sure I did either.”
After checking it with Camelot, and having the confirmation that she was in fact a millionaire, the first thing Sandy did was retire from her work as a warehouse operative, report Birmingham Live.
Sandy said: “I didn’t retire to swan about living the millionaire life. I help care for my father, and that was always a juggle with work, now thanks to this amazing win I will have more time to cherish precious moments with him.”
While she isn’t planning on changing much in the short-term, and her loved ones are the priority, a house, trips to sporting events and dream holidays are on the cards for Sandy.
She said: “I’m okay where I am currently, but in the future I’d like to buy a bungalow. I have a cousin in Atlanta, Georgia, who I haven’t been able to visit in the last two years so a holiday over there, and a road trip to Las Vegas are definitely on the cards.
“I’m also a big rugby fan and have only been able to watch England at Twickenham once so there will certainly be more trips to watch them, as well as watching the Rugby World Cup in France next year.”
Sandy bought her winning Match A Million National Lottery Scratch card from the One Stop shop on Netherhampton Road, Harnham. The Match A Million Scratch card offers a 1 in 3.45 overall chance of winning a prize. The card costs £5 and prizes range from £5 to £1,000,000.
By playing any National Lottery game, players generate more than £30million each week for National Lottery-funded projects. This money helps support everything from the local charity making a difference where you live through to helping our nation’s athletes win medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
To date, over £45billion has been raised for National Lottery Good Causes with more than 660,000 individual grants awarded.
Thanks to National Lottery players, over £1.2billion is being used by charities and organisations affected by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, which includes over £600million in funding support from the National Lottery Community Fund which is being used to help groups best placed to support people and communities through the crisis.
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