A LUCKY couple have told how they nearly missed out on a Euromillions jackpot after scooping £100,000.
Kathleen Reece, 41, and husband Mark, 42, landed the whopping sum after matching five numbers and one lucky star in the lottery draw on August 18.
SWNSMark and Karleen Reece who won £100,771 on the EuroMillions[/caption]
Now Kathleen has revealed how they almost missed out – as she used to moan about her husband buying EuroMillions tickets.
She explained: “Every Friday Mark comes home from work with a EuroMillions ticket, and I always moan at him.
“We’ve won a few pounds over the years, but I’ve never seen myself as a lucky person.
“On the Friday of the win, Mark didn’t give me the tickets as usual because he was out that night and kept them in his wallet.
“We were out on the Saturday night too, so it was only on Sunday morning that I checked the tickets.
“Mark popped out for some milk and asked me to check the ticket. I scanned the first one and nothing. Then I scanned the second and it asked me to claim.
“I showed it to my daughter. I said it was a practical joke but she’s a maths teacher so was easily able to check the amount and check the numbers online.
“We called out the winning numbers to each other and the amount from the website.
“As the realisation of what this meant hit us we sat there in disbelief; we were winners.”
“I decided to call the number on the back of the ticket and was talking to a lady from The National Lottery when Mark came home with the milk.
“I told him to shush as I was on the phone to The National Lottery. His jaw dropped.
“He looked at me in disbelief so I put the phone on speaker and the lady confirmed she was from The National Lottery, and we’d won £100,770.14”
Karleen, Mark and their daughter and two sons said they all sat in the kitchen staring at each other before hiding the winning ticket in Mark’s passport for safekeeping.
Karleen said: “I then called my sister who was at my mum and dad’s.
“She came around straight away and we all just started to think about what had just happened. The day is a bit of a blur to be honest.”
Mark always has a Lucky Dip and the couple were one of three UK winners that week.
The winning numbers from that draw were 23, 25, 30, 44, 47 and the Lucky Stars were 9 and 12.