I keep expecting a friend to jump out and shout, Gotcha!
Mum can’t believe she’s won £3m mansion just before Mother’s Day
A MUM who won a £3million dream home just before Mother’s Day thought her friends were playing a practical joke on her.
Sarah Stocks, 43, had been renting because she could not afford a house big enough for her two children, her partner Brett and his two children.
But the family can now luxuriate in a five-bedroom home, which comes with £100,000 cash, in the Omaze draw.
Recalling the moment she discovered she had won, Sarah said: “It was just another Friday when I got a call saying I’d won an Omaze prize.
“My first reaction was that my friends were playing an elaborate practical joke on me. I didn’t think for one second I’d actually won anything, but the next thing I knew the Omaze team were on my front lawn telling me I’d won a £3million house in the Cotswolds – it was crazy.
“I still couldn’t believe it even when I got to the house
– I kept expecting one of my friends to jump out a wardrobe and shout, ‘Gotcha!’” The mansion boasts huge gardens and an outdoor entertaining area complete with speaker system, in Charlbury, Oxon. Sarah, from Essex, said:
“We’re currently renting and our plan was to save as much as possible to one day get a little bungalow when the kids have left home, as buying a four-bedroom house for us all now just isn’t possible.
“I can’t believe we now own a fivebedroom house that you could fit five bungalows in.”
Sarah must now decide whether to live in the house, sell it, or rent it out at an estimated £5,000 to £7,000 a month.
“Whatever we decide to do with the house long-term, this win is truly transformational for my family,” she said.
The draw also raised £3m for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Liz Tait, director of fundraising, said the hospital was “blown away”.