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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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