Dundee Mother Finds £1 Million Lotto Ticket in her Handbag
Last Updated: Thursday 8th June 2017, 10:05
A mother from Dundee is £1 million richer after discovering a winning Lotto ticket in her handbag. Shaheen Akhtar landed the seven-figure sum after matching the winning Lotto Millionaire Raffle code BLUE 2525 6970 that appeared in the draw on Wednesday 12th April and now plans to treat herself with the cash.
The 31-year-old had bought her entry from The Newsagents on Albert Road in Stobswell ahead of the April draw and placed it in her handbag for safe keeping. However, the mother-of-three failed to check the ticket immediately after the draw and was completely unaware that she was a millionaire until she found it in her handbag weeks later.
Upon discovering and checking the playslip, the overjoyed winner couldn’t believe her eyes and felt the need to act quickly as she desperately tried to confirm the victory: “I ran to the shop where I bought the ticket and asked them to check it again,” she told reporters. “When it’s a big win it doesn’t tell the retailer the amount and the shopkeeper advised me to call the National Lottery Line.”
Shaheen wasted no time at all in contacting her loved ones to tell them the incredible news: “Most of them were in disbelief and asked things like ‘Are you mad?’. Once I explained that I really had won everyone was really happy for me,” she said.
The delighted Dundonian, who currently lives with her husband and three children in a three-bedroom dwelling, now plans to use her colossal windfall to buy a bigger home for her family, one in which each of her trio of offspring can have their own room.
Shaheen also revealed that she will be spoiling herself with the money: “I’ve always wanted to go to Dubai, but it was too expensive before, so we will definitely be going on a holiday there,” she said, before adding: “It will also be nice to go shopping and treat myself as it always tends to be for the children.”
Shaheen, who was just 123 days from seeing her sizeable prize expire, joins a long line of winners to have claimed a major prize in the Scottish city, with a significant amount of lottery prizes over the £50,000 mark being scooped in ‘Wondee’.
If you would like to follow in Shaheen’s footsteps by winning a life-changing Lotto prize, don’t forget to pick up your entry ahead of this Saturday’s draw when the jackpot will be an estimated £13.1 million. You can play online or via any authorised retailer across the country. Best of luck!