All pantomimes traditionally have a happy ending - 'Oh yes they do'. And that was certainly the case for Dion Davies, an actor who'd recently starred in one.
The 47-year-old from Ceredigion was clearing out his car before having it valeted earlier this month only to find a £55,086 winning EuroMillions ticket he'd purchased before Christmas.
Dion had bought the ticket when he was starring as the Dame in a Christmas production of Sleeping Beauty at The Torch Theatre, Milford Haven but completely forgot about it. It was only when he was giving the vehicle a quick once over before it was professionally cleaned that he made the happy discovery stuck inside his sun visor.
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"I needed to clean the car both inside and out because it was in a terrible state after lots of journeys," said Dion, who's also appeared in BBC’s Torchwood and Ruth Jones' Stella. "So I took it to get valeted, at which point the guy asked me to take all of my belongings out before he started - just in case he threw away something that was valuable.
"And I'm so glad he did because I found a multi lottery ticket in my sun visor that I had bought in December from Tesco in Milford Haven where I was performing in the panto. I then took it to the Spar shop in Tregaron and the chap there said I needed to call the number on the back of the final ticket because it was a winner."
Dion had managed to match all five numbers - all based on family birthdays - plus one Lucky Star, in the EuroMillions draw which had taken place on Tuesday, December 20. Unbeknownst to him the ticket had been officially announced as unclaimed by The National Lottery in January.
He then went home to tell his wife Ifana before the pair called The National Lottery to make the claim. "Ifana had a friend round, so she stayed with us while we made the call," he said.
"When the person at the Lottery said it was a winner, we all went - along with a neighbour - to get some lunch together, which of course included some glasses of fizz."
Dion added that had he tried cleaning the car himself he may have not bothered checking his numbers at all. Ironically, he's currently rehearsing for a play he co-created called The Bet, which revolves around a man who lost a potential life-changing fortune by failing to put money on Norton’s Coin, the Welsh horse which proved an unlikely winner at the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup with odds of 100-1.
He, Ifana and their 15-year-old son now plan to take a trip to Italy this year. After that sci-fi fan Dion also hopes to take his son to the annual international Comic-Con convention in San Diego, USA.
A spokesperson for Camelot UK Lotteries Limited said, "Thanks to National Lottery players, £30M is generated 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 nations' athletes win medals at last summer’s Commonwealth Games.
"To date, £47BN has been raised for National Lottery Good Causes, with more than 670,000 individual grants awarded. Players can buy and check their tickets online by downloading the National Lottery app or at national-lottery.co.uk."
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