A LUCKY ticket-holder won the lottery using her dead mum’s numbers – but almost lost the lot after making a huge mistake.
Kelly Firth, 44, bought mum Carol’s lottery tickets every week before she passed away.
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And upon clearing out the 65-year-old’s flat a few months later, Kelly found the numbers written on a card and decided the play them.
Putting a line on Wednesday and Saturday, the numbers didn’t come up in the first draw so Kelly ripped up the ticket and threw it in the bin.
But to her surprise three numbers came up in the weekend draw leaving Kelly no choice but to rummage through her bins to find the ripped up ticket.
Kelly managed to find the pieces and put them back together bagging her the £1,600 prize.
The mum-of-two was celebrating and shouting to Carol’s ashes when her mum’s favourite song – ‘You’re Simply the Best’ by Tina Turner – came on the radio.
Kelly, from west Halifax, said: “I still can’t believe I won with mum’s numbers.
“My daughter and I would nip to the shop for mum every week for her lottery.
“She had the same numbers on her little card that she gave me and always told me to put both sides on the numbers.
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“We did the same numbers for mum for years and never – never did she win.
“I decided to carry them on in remembrance of mum.
“I went to my local shop about two months after she passed and placed them on two tickets for Wednesday and Saturday’s Lotto Hotpicks draw.
“I couldn’t believe I won when mum never did, and I just knew she was still around looking after me when the numbers came up.
“I’m still in shock and always will be. It was a sign from mum and I still can’t believe it.”
Carol, who had a number of health issues, died in May 2021.
She played the numbers – 7, 17 and 37 – every week, letting the machine at the shops generate the final five numbers on the ticket.
“Watching the TV on Saturday night, I recognised mum’s numbers but I’d already ripped up the tickets and binned them,” Kelly added.
“My heart dropped. I was jumping for joy one minute, telling mum we had won and that I knew she was around because she knew I needed this, and then panicking the next.
“I’d only just put my black bin out so I jumped in the big bin outside and pulled every black bin liner out and searched every one until I found the tickets which luckily still had the barcode intact.
“I was shouting to mum that we’d won, and I put the radio on to celebrate, and mum’s favourite song which I played at her funeral was playing.
“It just confirmed that mum really was still there. I couldn’t believe it.”
Done a number
Kelly took her ripped up tickets to her local shop where a shop assistant helped to piece them back together, before handing over the cash.
The winnings were spent on a family trip to Blackpool and said her mum would have loved it.
Kelly said: “I took my little family on a little trip to Blackpool with the winnings – my daughter Demi, 26, and my four grandsons, Harley, 10, Coby Jay, eight, Addison Rio, five, and Kylan, four.
“My mum loved Blackpool and I know it would have meant a lot to her that her numbers helped us make some special memories.
“Mum was my best friend, I miss her every day and I can’t believe her numbers brought us so much luck. It was like she was still here with us.
“She was certainly looking down on us. All I knew was that she was still around, looking after her family.”
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