A LUCKY lotto winner has told how she had to pull her winning ticket out of the bin after her husband threw it away.
Richard and Dione Buss bought a weekly ticket covering both the Wednesday and Saturday draws while on holiday in Cornwall.
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The pair had bought the winning ticket worth a whopping £1.9million while on holidays back in 2013.
But after the draw drew a blank Richard, then 48, put the ticket in the waste paper pile and thought nothing more of it.
It was only rescued when Dione had a last-minute “niggling feeling” and retrieved the slip – which perfectly matched the Saturday draw numbers.
But the delighted couple were unable to confirm their win for 12 hours because the Camelot office was closed – and Dione kept her mind busy by ironing through the night.
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When they were finally able to officially confirm their winning amount, of £1,888,630, the pair said they were “dumbfounded”.
Dione explained: “We buy a weekly ticket for the two draws, on a Wednesday and a Saturday.
“Richard had already put the ticket on the recycling pile after the first draw, forgetting we still had Saturday to go.
“I dread to think what had happened if it had just been recycled, we very nearly lost all that money.
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“Thankfully I had a niggling feeling and checked the ticket and saw that it still had that final draw on it that we hadn’t checked.
“When we realised we’d won and the amount we’d won it was absolutely unbelievable.”
After their big win the couple and their daughter Harriet had big plans on how they would spend their money.
Diona, who suffers from MS, wished to fundraise for for a hospital unit at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol.
The couple bought the ticket while on holiday with their parents, and daughter Harriet while on holiday in St Ives, Cornwall, at the end of September.
The Wednesday draw passed while they were away and Dione tossed the ticket into the recycling pile when they returned home to Stogursey, Somerset.
But the following night – September 28 – they hit the jackpot and did not realise they had won until the following day when Dione retrieved the ticket.
The modest pair now plan to travel the world, visiting places they have never been, including climbing the Great Wall of China, as well as fundraise.
She added: “We want to do some fundraising with the money really.
“I have always wanted to do it and now I have the perfect excuse to, it will be great to give back to people who have given us so much.”
Dione, a property developer, added that the pair also plan to buy a classic car, as well as a plot of land to build a house on.
He said: “We’ve also been given a list from Harriet, who wants a Fiat 500 and a horse. I think that’s manageable. And I want to build up my collection of guitars.
“It’s funny, we used to laugh and say ‘we need to win the lottery’ to benefit all our friends and family – and now we’ve done it we have to come good on it.
“We can’t wait!”
The lucky couple, who have bought a weekly ticket since the lottery began 19 years ago, made a small change from their usual numbers in 2012 after they scooped £1,238 matching five numbers.
They had only used their winning combination, 10, 12, 14, 25, 46, and 48 – made up of birthdays, ages and house numbers – for a year before the huge windfall.
Dione added: “My daughter thought we were joking, as did my dad.
“Everyone is just so pleased for us, they keep telling us to sort ourselves out as a family now before we start using it for other people.”
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It comes after a man who scooped a £105million lotto jackpot revealed he wishes he had never won and wants a normal life again.
Meanwhile, a woman who spent £3 on the lottery while enjoying a drink at the pub scooped a £300k jackpot, but only received a quarter of it.
