Lottery Winners Celebrate Multi-Million Pound Jackpots

Lottery Winners Celebrate Multi-Million Pound Jackpots
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Three lottery jackpot winners are celebrating multi-million pound windfalls.

Single mother-of-four Bev Doran, 37, of Shipley, West Yorkshire, leapt out of bed when she learned she had won Friday's £14.5 million EuroMillions jackpot.

Ms Doran, who lives in a council house with her four children, is hoping to buy a family home after she discovered her windfall on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, best friends Paula Barraclough, 45, and Lorraine Smith, 54, from Tyne and Wear won £7.6 million each in Saturday's Lotto draw.

Ms Doran, who is a carer for two of her children who have autism, was checking messages on her phone in bed when she found an email from the National Lottery, prompting her to check her account online.

She said: "I was still waking up when I logged into my account.

"I could see the jackpot amount but couldn't work out what I'd won.

"Then I slowly realised it was one UK winner and that that person was me.

"It was taking a very long time to sink in.

"I jumped out of bed and burst into my eldest son's bedroom.

"He was asleep but I was shouting 'I've won the Euros. I'm a millionaire.'

"All he came back with was 'What you on about?'

"It was crazy, my head was spinning and nothing made any sense."

She immediately began looking for houses online, before going on a shopping spree and staying in a four-star hotel.

Ms Barraclough and Ms Smith, who have been friends for 17 years and refer to each other as Polly and Lolly, won the £15,342,900 on a syndicate ticket.

Care home cook Ms Smith, who lost her husband six years ago, only bought the Lucky Dip ticket from a local shop as she was waiting for her bus to work, which was running late.

The mother-of-one said: "The news really is still sinking in.

"I thought I was hallucinating - I just thought this cannot really be happening.

"It was only when I got on the phone to Camelot I realised my best friend and I really were multi-millionaires."

She plans first to buy a new frying pan with the money, after throwing hers away the day before she won.

Ms Barraclough said she learned of the win when her friend called her at 7.15am on Sunday morning.

The coffee shop worker, who lives at home with her parents, said: "I picked up the phone and said to her: 'You better be calling me to tell me we have won the lottery waking me up at this time.'

"And the voice on the other end of the phone replied: 'We have! We have all six numbers.'

"I just fell silent - I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing."

She said the win was "life-changing" and she hope to move into a house of her own.