Newsagent Sells Herself A Win!

The owner of a newsagents in Thornton Cleveleys bought a lottery ticket for the 13 October EuroMillions draw from her own shop - and ended up winning £512,089 by matching five main numbers plus one Lucky Star number.

Whilst the majority of people tend to associate Friday 13 with bad luck, the new half-millionaire Hayley Barker says that it's always been fortunate for her.

"It's really strange, but something good always happens to me on Friday 13th. And since a money spider had walked across my hand earlier that day, in my mind I knew I was in for a win on EuroMillions. But I could never imagine it would be over half a million!"

Hayley didn't watch the EuroMillions draw live on television, but checked her numbers when returning to her flat after an enjoyable evening out. "I had been in the pub that evening with my parents and friends," she explains.

"When I arrived back home I picked out my EuroMillions ticket and switched on Teletext to check the numbers. I firstly checked the lucky star, which matched and looking down the other numbers they also kept on matching. Getting to the end I realised that I had got five numbers and the star! Not believing it, I checked the numbers another four times before it started to sink in!"

When the reality of the situation had sunk in, Hayley did what most other lottery winners do - she shared her news with her family.

"I next called my parents to let them know the good news," Hayley said. "However, having joked that I was going to win, when we were in the pub, their immediate reaction was that I was winding them up. It took a couple of minutes until they believed me."

Hayley, who is 25, is not planning what to do with her half-million pound fortune. "Having started with the shop when I was 21, I would love to pay the mortgage off and expand my business. I am also planning to get married in the near future and put some of the money towards a wedding and honeymoon to remember."

The cheque for the £512,089 prize was presented to Hayley by Emmerdale actress Deena Payne, who plays shopkeeper Viv Hope in the popular soap. "It's great for this to happen to a fellow 'shopkeeper'," Viv said. "I really do wish her all the best in the future."

The EuroMillions jackpot is estimated to be around £75 million this Friday thanks to eight consecutive rollovers. Better keep an eye out for those money spiders!

26 October 2006

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