They went to buy broccoli and came home with £1Million
Hayley Parker, 30, and her partner Matt Munn, 28, were hosting a family Christmas Eve dinner at their home in Essex when Hayley realised she was missing a couple of key ingredients. Popping quickly to the shops, the pair decided to buy everyone a Scratchcard as a pre-dinner treat.
Hayley said, “It was one of those spur of the moment decisions as we were paying for the veg.
“I’m a midwife and because I was working on Christmas Day we’d decided to celebrate on Christmas Eve instead. Having everyone around the table was a real treat and we were all in high spirits as we handed out the Scratchcards.”
It was Hayley who revealed the £1Million top prize on the Merry Millions Scratchcard but, having been the butt of a Christmas prank the previous year, she didn’t believe it when she saw the three symbols matched and a prize of £1Million.
“Last Christmas my stepdad gave me a joke scratchcard which said I’d won £1Million so I thought this lot had done the same thing, but I just couldn’t work out how they could have switched it to give me another joke one. So I showed it to them saying ‘very funny’ but they all responded with cheers that we’d won big, which of course I just thought was an even bigger wind up!”
With a sceptical Hayley in tow, the other six members of the syndicate all put their coats on to take the Merry Millions Scratchcard to the shop to check it. When the shopkeeper confirmed they had better call Camelot, they promptly marched home again so Hayley could put in the call.
Matt said, “We all waited in the lounge while Hayley was making the call. We were so nervous, giggling like school kids, until Hayley ran into the room saying ‘it’s real!’. We all cheered loudly, not believing we’d each received such a life-changing early Christmas present, and then very promptly cracked into the Christmas booze!”
Each of the seven syndicate members is going to enjoy £142,857.14 and they are already making plans. Hayley and Matt will be finishing renovations to their home with their share. Family members Ben and Holly are expecting their first child so a bigger home is high on their agenda and the others have plans for a new car and even a move to Germany.
Hayley said, “It’s certainly made 2019 a Christmas to be remembered for us all, and for me personally, the icing on the cake was that I also delivered my first Christmas Day baby, a healthy little baby girl. I’m not sure how we top this for Christmas 2020!”
20th January 2020
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