Basingstoke woman bored with husband watching Euros wins £1m

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Sammantha Young and husband Paul with lottery chequeImage source, PA Media
Image caption,

Sammantha Young bought the ticket while her husband was watching the football

A woman who found her husband's fixation on Euro 2020 "a little trying" bought a lottery ticket to cheer herself up and won £1m.

Sammantha Young, 33, from Basingstoke, bought the ticket while her husband was watching the football on 2 July.

She ended up being one of the prize winners in the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draw.

Mrs Young said part of the winnings would be spent on a Liverpool season ticket for her husband Paul.

She insisted that she had been "so proud to support the England team and cheered them all the way to the final".

However, she added her husband "watched every group game and it has been a little trying at times", which is why she "brightened" her Friday evening with a glass of Prosecco and by playing - and winning - one of the lottery "instant win" games.

The mother-of-two then spent her £20 winnings on a couple of lottery tickets.

"Little did I know I'd wake up a millionaire," she said.

Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

The couple are planning a dream holiday and want to buy a Range Rover Sport car

The following morning Mrs Young checked her emails and mistakenly thought she had won £1,000.

She said: "I'm a little embarrassed to admit that although I'm a chartered accountant, working with numbers every day, it was Paul who looked at the message more closely and pointed out that what I thought was £1,000 was one thousand times more and was actually £1m.

"Neither of us were willing to dare believe that the win was real. We were convinced it was fake and that somehow I had been scammed."

Ms Young said the money would give the family security as she had not been able to get life insurance because she has bipolar.

"It's always worried me that if anything happens to me, Paul and our children's future wouldn't be so secure," she said.

But the family is also planning to buy a dream holiday to Bora Bora in French Polynesia and a Range Rover Sport car.

Mrs Young was one of 20 players to win £1m in the draw.

Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

Mrs Young said part of the winnings would be spent on a Liverpool season ticket for her husband Paul

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