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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Kieren Williams

Lucky woman wins £22.5million with lottery ticket that was given to her as a present

A woman was gifted a lottery ticket which turned out to be the winning entry for a massive jackpot and won her a huge £22.5million prize.

After being given the ticket, she admitted that she didn’t check the results immediately.

The player from Melbourne, Australia said that after she finally did she has barely slept since the life-changing win.

She split the massive £45million jackpot with another winner.

"I'm still shocked," the unnamed winning woman told the lotto.

From here, she said she planned to use the money to help her family, buy a home and go travelling.

She added: "I've barely slept since I discovered the win. It's hard to put the feeling of knowing you've won $40 million into words. I don't think it's truly hit me yet.

Yen Le-Mai is the owner of the Sunshine Marketplace Lotto which sold the winning ticket (Sunshine Marketplace Lotto/Facebook)

"The ticket was a gift, but I didn't check it immediately. When I did check it though, I immediately called out to my family and they were just as shocked as I was. There were definitely plenty of cheers and tears.

“First and foremost, I'll be looking to help my family and share it with them.

"I'll need some time though to think about what else to do. I'll obviously buy a home, and I'd love to travel to Japan and the United States. I'd love to go everywhere.

"You always wonder about what you would do if something like this were to happen, and now it has happened, I have no idea what to do."

The winning ticket was sold at the Sunshine Marketplace Lotto, by owner Yen Le-Mai, who said she felt like she’d won the massive jackpot when she realised the winning ticket had come from her store.

Joe and Jess Thwaite won £184m on the Euromillions (Andrew Lloyd / SplashNews.com)

She said: “I was oblivious to it until a friend of mine contacted me to congratulate me on selling the winning ticket.

“At that moment, I felt I’d personally won. I was so excited and overwhelmed by the news.”

The Aussie powerball winner is the latest in recent weeks to land a massive jackpot.

Last week, a British couple walked away as winners of Britain’s biggest-ever Euromillions jackpot.

Joe and Jess Thwaite, 49 and 44, from Gloucestershire, went public after their £184million jackpot win.

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