By Victoria Mckeown-
A Welsh grandmother has won an amazing £3,800,000 jackpot on a Lotto draw, providing her with a brilliant Christmas present
Diane Bate became physically sick when she realised her National Lottery win was genuine after both her husband Michael and granddaughter decided to check the ticket to prove it wasn’t a hoax. The 70-year-old grandmother from Rhyl was stunned when her lottery app notified her of the win.
She said: ““I checked my ticket early on Sunday morning using the National Lottery app when it made a funny sound. I looked at the amount and couldn’t quite believe my eyes, I thought ‘Surely that can’t be right?!’ The most I have ever won before is £100.
“I was in total disbelief so I woke Michael up to check the ticket – he wasn’t happy but we’ve been married 52 years so he soon got over it! I still didn’t believe it, so I also checked it with my granddaughter too. I must have checked it about six times in total before I started to believe it was real and at that point I was physically sick!”
Trick
Diane continued: “My granddaughters played a trick on me once and had convinced me that I’d won £1,000 on the bingo, which nearly gave me a heart attack. The feeling of winning the lottery doesn’t even compare – I am on cloud nine!”
Dinner
Diane cooked a big family dinner to take her mind off things and called her loved ones to tell them the news. She said: “I called my daughter and she thought I was kidding. I then called my grandson and he didn’t believe me either so, as part of our support bubble, he rushed round instantly to check the ticket for himself.”
Despite the big win, the overjoyed grandma still plans on having as normal a Christmas as possible with her loved ones before deciding what to do with her new-found millionaire status in the new year but the couple have already started drawing up plans to travel the world.
“We want to buy a bigger house locally as we love the area but we don’t want a mansion or anything flashy. The USA is our favourite destination, we have been about 15 times and would love to go back as soon as it’s safe to do so.
Happy Diane kisses hubby Michael Image: Camelot
Canada is also on the bucket list and we have a daughter who lives in Australia who we would love to visit again. We will definitely be treating ourselves to first class flights on our travels! There is nothing in particular I want, I have everything I need really, but buying a new handbag always makes me feel nice.”
The lucky grandma also plans to pay for her granddaughter’s wedding in the new year, but will be unable to attend because of Covid.
“One of our granddaughters is getting married in the USA in January. We aren’t able to attend due to Covid unfortunately, but the win means we can help out financially and help give her an amazing wedding.
“Michael, who retired as a HGV driver some 15 years ago, has suffered from ill health recently, so this win is a real pick-me-up for the both of us. Being able to help out our family brings us so much happiness – it isn’t just a win for me, it’s a win for them too.”
(Image: Camelot)
Diane matched all six main numbers in the Lotto draw on 12 December. She bought her winning Lotto ticket at Asda on St Asaph Avenue in Flintshire. The winning Lotto numbers for the draw were 13, 38, 39, 49, 53, 56 and the bonus ball was 59.