Friends scoop lotto £15.3m because bus was late
IF your bus to work is late, it is not normally a happy experience.
But in Lorraine Smith’s case, it became a cause for celebration.
She popped into a nearby shop and bought a lottery ticket to share with her best friend Paula Barraclough – and hours later the pair were celebrating a £15.3million win.
Widow Mrs Smith, 54, a care home chef, said: ‘I woke up on Saturday morning and went out to the bus stop The bus didn’t turn up and I really needed to get warm.
‘I discovered I had a £2 coin and some loose change in my pocket so I popped into the local shop and bought a lucky dip Lotto ticket. Never did I believe the fate of the bus being late would result in my life being changed for ever.’
She and Miss Barraclough, 45, both from Sunderland, have been friends for 17 years since they worked together at a coffee shop in the city and call each other Polly and Lolly. But so far their spending plans are relatively modest and they are determined their new-found riches will not spoil their friendship.
‘I would hate to think that anything changed between us because of money – I’d rather give it back,’ said Mrs Smith, whose husband Terry, a mechanic, died six years ago. Although she will buy a car for her son Lewis, 23, the only other purchase she has already planned is a new frying pan. She intends to continue working and will not move house.
‘The news really is still sinking in. I thought I was hallucinating – I just thought, “This cannot really be happening”. I can’t see the reason to move some- where big and flash with more rooms to clean. I certainly won’t be giving up work – I have people who rely on me and who I need to cook for. There is no way I would ever let these people down.’
Miss Barraclough, a cafe cook, also intends to keep working. She said the ‘life-changing’ lottery win will enable her to move out of her parents’ home and get a German shepherd dog.
‘I’m going to buy my own house,’ she said. ‘It’ll be really nice to be mortgagefree and there will be some animals going in there.
‘And we’ve got a few holidays planned. We’re going to go to Las Vegas and we’ll fly first class just to try it.’
She added that she would also like to donate some of her winnings to a fund set up by the parents of five-year-old Bradley Lowery, who has a rare form of cancer. He received more than 250,000 Christmas cards and has appeared on the football pitch at Sunderland games.
‘I won’t give up work, people rely on me’