LOTTO LUCK..!

Jackie Campbell (40) from Garry Drive won over £83,000 on the National Lottery with five numbers and the bonus ball. While Natasha McVicker of nearby Hamilton Park and her friend Clare Mullan of Castlerock scooped £25,000 live on Channel 4’s The Million Pound Drop.

Mother of four, Jackie told the Times: “I wasn’t watching the lottery numbers on TV because we where outside enjoying the good weather, however it was my mum who lives in Scotland who called me to say that she thought my numbers had come up.

“I really didn’t believe what she said, so I set down the phone and promised to call back later on once I’d checked.

I should have really trusted my mum as we’d been doing the Lottery together for 16 years. Every week we choose the same numbers which are significant as they are the ages of my husband and four children and my mum does the same with numbers being ages of her sons and daughters.

“I went on to the internet and teletext straight away to check the number but could only find Wednesday nights ones. As you can imagine my heart was racing and I kept having to calm myself down. My husband and son came to help me and 20 minutes later we found them and realised we really had got five winning numbers and the bonus ball which were 3, 24, 35, 17, 18 and 29!”

However the Campbell family had an agonising two hours wait before she knew exactly how much Jackie had won.

Jackie continued: “It was a difficult couple of hours before Camelot called to tell me how much I had won, however I would have been happy with just £5,000. So when I found out that I’d won £83,000 the first thing I did was just sit down and tried to take it all in - I felt numb.

“Then I rang my mum and told her - it was really emotional. I’m close to my mum and we always had a pact that if either of us wins money we’ll split it, so I’m sending half the money to her.

“The money obviously means a lot to me and my family but I’m even more pleased for my mum because she’s worked hard all her life and has got nothing.

“Camelot advised me to write my name on the back of the ticket so that if the ticket was stolen no one could forge my identity and collect the money, which I did. But to be on the safe side I also went into my bedroom and put the ticket inside a George Best CD case because he was a legend and I knew he would keep it safe for me.

“As you can imagine I couldn’t sleep that night and only really got a good nights sleep on Sunday night. However it still hasn’t sunk in and I feel that someone is going to shake me and tell me to wake up.”

And, while Jackie was coming to terms with her £83,000 jackpot on Saturday night, another Ballymoney lady was also in the middle of a life changing dilemma.