09 Dec From Warehouse to New House for Essex National Lottery Winner
A hard-working warehouse operative, who relocated from Dorset to Essex earlier this year to be with her boyfriend, is set to buy a new home after an amazing £242,775.50 online EuroMillions win on 27 November.
Lucky Samantha Morton (36), was furloughed in March from her job as a Warehouse & Logistics Manager in Dorchester, Dorset when she made the decision to move to Benfleet, Essex to be with her boyfriend, Barry Lingard (26), a Machine Operator at a Recycling Centre.
Samantha explained, “Barry and I met online towards the end of last year, before the pandemic changed all our lives, and we’d spend a lot of our time at weekends making the three-and-a-half-hour 170 mile trip travelling to see each other. I am divorced and I was just so happy to have met someone lovely again.
“When the pandemic struck, I was put on furlough and both Barry and I really wanted to be closer to each other, so I made the move to Essex to live with Barry and his family. I was then made redundant in the summer but immediately started looking for jobs in Essex and was lucky enough to find one in a local warehouse, which is where I’ve been working since.
“Essex is where we want to be and this life-changing win means that Barry and I can start looking for a house of our own – it will be amazing!”
Hard-working Samantha, who normally does the early shifts at the warehouse and will only have Christmas Day and Boxing Day off over the festive period, can now choose how much overtime she wants to do at work. She said,
“The day that I found out I had won, which was on Saturday morning after the draw on Friday night (27 November), I was asked by my manager if I wanted to do some overtime? I think that’s the moment when the win started to sink in as, rather than having to weigh up the extra cash against extra hours, I was able to say straight away… and very politely, ‘No thanks!’”
Samantha explained further about that whirlwind few hours between the draw on Friday night and finding out early on Saturday morning that she was nearly a quarter of a million pounds better off.
“I was up for work early, as usual, when I checked my emails and saw one from The National Lottery telling me I’d won and asking me to log into my account to get further information about my prize.
“Of course, like anyone else, to read you’ve won something at 5.15am is always going to help you wake up but, I got the shock of my life when I logged into my National Lottery account and it said I’d won nearly £250,000!”
However, Samantha had to put the disbelief and the celebrations on hold as she had to get to work which, she says, was a surreal experience in itself.
“I was in a bit of a daze at work that morning and couldn’t wait to get my break at just after 10 so that I could ring Camelot to check for certain that I had won.
“That phonecall to Camelot whilst I was sitting in my car was the best phonecall I have ever made… swiftly followed by the call to Barry straight after where he was whooping down the phone with me! I was still in a daze when I went back to work but managed to get through the day ok.”
Samantha summed up by saying, “I’m not a regular National Lottery player but I’d seen the EuroMillions jackpot was getting really big so thought I’d have a go. I played a Lucky Dip and it seems the Gods were smiling on me that day.”
As well as the search for a new home, Samantha is also planning to buy her Hire Purchase car outright, pay off her debts and the couple will look to go on holiday somewhere warm, when it is safe to do so. Samantha said,
“It’s been a tough year but I couldn’t feel more lucky right now. This Christmas is going to be extra special. Like everyone else, we’re looking forward to a better year next year.”
Samantha matched the five main numbers and one Lucky Star number in the EuroMillions draw on 27 November. She bought her winning EuroMillions ticket online via national-lottery.co.uk. The winning EuroMillions numbers for the draw on Friday 27 November, 2020 were 2, 5, 8, 14, 16 and the Lucky Star numbers were 8 and 9.
In the current situation, local retail outlets remain open for people to play in-store. However, if you prefer, you can play online at national-lottery.co.uk or by downloading the National Lottery app. Playing online via the website or app means that your ticket is checked, and you get an email notification if you win a prize. You can also scan your retail tickets on the National Lottery app to check if you’re a winner.
By playing any National Lottery game, players help to raise an average of £30M every week for National Lottery Good Causes across the UK. This money helps support arts, community and charity, heritage, education, environment and the sport sectors – everything from the local charity making a difference where you live through to helping our nation’s athletes win Olympic and Paralympic gold medals. To date, more than £42BN has been raised and distributed to National Lottery Good Causes through more than 625,000 individual grants.
This year, thanks to National Lottery players, up to £800M is being used by charities and organisations affected by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak across the communities, the arts, heritage and sport. This includes up to £400M 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 – from helping support food banks to causes that combat loneliness and isolation, support for the elderly and projects that aid health in the community.
