#Witham: Essex Mum Celebrates EuroMillions Win

01 Dec #Witham: Essex Mum Celebrates EuroMillions Win

A mum of one from Witham in Essex has banked a £1m EuroMillions win after waiting for almost three weeks to claim the life-changing sum.

The lucky lady, Jacqui Shannon (46), played online at national-lottery.co.uk and won one of the two UK Millionaire Maker prizes from the EuroMillions draw on Tuesday 1 November, 2016, but ignored all the initial emails with ‘news about your ticket’ until almost three weeks later. She said:

“I play online and tend to buy a few weeks-worth at a time, which is what I had done on this occasion, using £25 from a previous win. When I saw the email telling me I’d had a win I assumed that it was something small so just didn’t get around to checking it. Had I known I was a millionaire for those weeks, I wouldn’t have had to worry about how we were going to get my car MOT’d!”

It was towards the end of the third week that the unsuspecting millionaire, readying herself for a day at work, finally checked into her National Lottery account to discover that she was a winner. The full-time business support manager for a charity, said:

“I was at work one morning, getting ready for the day ahead, when I remembered to log into my account to see what the win was. I was chatting to my colleague and not really paying attention to my lottery account. When I saw that the first message in my account was alerting me that I’d won a Lucky Dip I assumed that was the win, until I read the second message which was about a £1million win on the UK Millionaire Maker! I calmly said to my colleague, ‘sorry, could you hold that thought’ and ran out of the room into the corridor to ring Camelot.”

Loitering in the corridor at work Jacqui called Camelot to verify the win and upon hearing she really was a millionaire, leapt about with joy before ringing her husband of 16 years, to share the good news. Jacqui said:

“I have to admit I went a little crazy in the corridor – leaping about and squealing – and then went back to my desk as calmly as possible, deciding I didn’t want to tell anyone until the money really was in my bank account. It was certainly one occasion when my schoolgirl drama training came in handy, as I did my level best to look calm and collected while inside I was screaming ‘I’m a millionaire!’”

Now a fully-fledged lottery millionaire, Jacqui is wasting no time in making plans for herself and those around her, fulfilling two long-held dreams; to provide a safe future for her son and to own new cars. With both the family cars on their last legs new cars are a must – a BMW 320 for him and a Mini for her. Jacqui said:

“We’ve already bought my husband’s car – the deal was too good to turn down – and I’m test driving mine this week. It’s crazy to think that for most of November I’ve been panicking about how we could keep our old cars on the road for another year, now we don’t need to worry about anything and can enjoy owning a brand new car for the first time ever.”

“And just last week we had decided to set up a saving fund for our son to help him out in the future, now in one lucky break he is set for life. It’s just the most liberating feeling.”

Alongside the investment in her son’s future and new cars, Jacqui is looking forward to booking a trip to visit her sister in Dubai, flying first class, and although she originally had no intention to move house, is also making a few appointments to view houses in the area, just in case!

Still grinning at her tremendous good fortune, Jacqui said:

“I’ve always played the lottery hoping to win but, also because I know first-hand how many charities in the UK benefit from lottery funding. Never did I dream this would happen but now it has, I fully intend to live the dream.

“I’ve no plans to give up work yet, although I do recognise that this is an opportunity to think about other career options that I previously couldn’t have entertained because I needed to help provide for the family. For the first time ever, at 46, I have options and freedom!”

Jacqui bought her winning EuroMillions ticket online at national-lottery.co.uk. For every EuroMillions line played UK players also automatically receive a Millionaire Maker entry, and every week Millionaire Maker guarantees to create four UK millionaires – two on Tuesday and two on Friday.

The National Lottery changes the lives of winners like Jacqui as well as communities across the UK – players raise, on average, over £30m for National Lottery-funded projects every week. In her Braintree postcode area alone there have been 524 individual National Lottery grants made to date, funding projects across the arts, sports, heritage, health, education, environment, charity and voluntary sectors.