Christmas comes early for Diane

Diane Bate, 70, who is retired and used to work in Social Services, recalls the moment she realised her National Lottery win was genuine after both her husband, Michael, 74, and granddaughter had to check the ticket to prove it wasn’t a hoax.

Diane said, “I checked my ticket early on Sunday morning using the National Lottery app when it made a funny sound. I looked at the amount and couldn’t quite believe my eyes, I thought, ‘surely that can’t be right?!’ The most I have ever won before is £100.

“I was in total disbelief so I woke Michael up to check the ticket – he wasn’t happy but we’ve been married 52 years so he soon got over it. I still didn’t believe it, so I also checked it with my granddaughter too. I must have checked it about six times in total before I started to believe it was real, and at that point, I was physically sick.

“My granddaughters played a trick on me once and had convinced me that I’d won £1,000 on the Bingo, which nearly gave me a heart attack. The feeling of winning the Lottery doesn’t even compare – I am on cloud nine!”

After the win had started to sink in, Diane spent the rest of her Sunday in a bit of a daze. She cooked dinner to take her mind off things and called her loved ones to tell them the news. She said, “I called my daughter and she thought I was kidding. I then called my grandson and he didn’t believe me either so, as part of our support bubble, he rushed round instantly to check the ticket for himself.”

Despite being a newly-made millionaire, family-orientated Diane plans to have as normal a Christmas as possible with her loved ones before deciding what to do with her new-found fortune in the New Year.

“We want to put it towards a bigger house locally as we love the area, but we don’t want a mansion or anything flashy.”

Once lockdown is over Diane is excited about the holiday opportunities. She said, “The USA is our favourite destination, we have been about 15 times and would love to go back as soon as it’s safe to do so. Canada is also on the list and we have a daughter who lives in Australia who we would love to visit again. We will definitely be treating ourselves to first class flights on our travels.

“There is nothing in particular I want, I have everything I need really, but buying a new handbag always makes me feel nice.”

As well as holidays and handbags, Diane plans to help her family out with the prize money. Diane said, “One of our granddaughters is getting married in the USA in January. We aren’t able to attend due to Covid unfortunately, but the win means we can help out financially and help give her an amazing wedding.”

23rd December 2020