Mum proud of £1,700 on Lottery surprised when she really scooped £1m jackpot
A mum who was ‘buzzing’ with what she thought was a £1,700 Lottery win actually scopped the £1m jackpot without initially realising.
Toni Henderson, an admin assistant from County Durham, said she sat ‘shaking in bed’ as she counted the zeros on her actual windfall she won on Lucky Dips.
The 32-year-old single mum said she didn’t ‘sleep a wink that night’ and was so shocked that when her mum saw her, she thought something horrible had happened.
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Explaining the moment she realised she’d won, Toni said: “I checked one of the lines and realised I had some of the numbers. I originally thought I had matched five numbers, which was £1,700 and I was buzzing that I’d won that – it was extra money I didn’t have.
(Image: Anthony Devlin)
“But when I logged into my online account it came along the top that I had won £1m. I sat there counting the zeros, shaking in bed, whilst my son was still asleep.”
Toni said she tried to call her mum but, since she wasn’t answering, she took her son and drove over to her house.
“She was visibly concerned when we turned up out of the blue and kept asking what was wrong,” Toni explained. “I remember saying something like, ‘I think you need to sit down’ before telling her that I’d won £1m on The National Lottery – she couldn’t believe it.”
(Image: Anthony Devlin)
The following morning Toni was able to confirm the win with The National Lottery, but she said that didn’t make it feel any more real.
Toni admits, it still doesn’t feel real even with the money now safely in the bank.
She said: “There are no words to express how you feel. I had this excited butterfly feeling having the win officially confirmed and then seeing all of the zeros in my bank account.
“You sit and think about what you’d do all the time if you won, but then, when it happens, you don’t know what to do.”
She did say, however, that she is glad she can now give her son a future.
“It gives my son the start he deserves and I want the money to last for our future,” she said.
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