The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
£1m Lotto winner carried ticket around for weeks
Mumof-three had no idea she effectively had seven-figure sum in her handbag
A Dundee lotto winner has revealed she walked around with a £1 million ticket for weeks before she realised she had scooped the jackpot.
Mum-of-three Shaheen Akhtar only checked her numbers against the Wednesday April 12 Lotto raffle draw when she noticed the ticket lying around in the bottom of her handbag.
Shaheen, 31, who bought the ticket from The Newsagents at the top of Albert Street in Stobswell, said she ran back to the shop upon realising her numbers were an exact match.
“I asked them to check it again,” she said.
“But when it’s a big win it doesn’t tell the retailer the amount and the shopkeeper advised me to call the National Lottery Line.
“I came home and started to call my family to let them know the good news. Most of them were in disbelief and asked things like ‘Are you mad?’. Once I explained that I really had won everyone was really happy for me.”
The Courier revealed in May that Shaheen – who was anonymous at the time – was the third person to have bought a £1m winning ticket in the city in the space of two months.
Coincidentally, a prize draw in April was claimed by namesake Mid-Craigie resident Shaheen Rashid.
However an unwitting Dundonian is yet to claim the prize for the draw on March 28 – which has a winning code of XRVT 79106 – and will miss out unless they claim it before September.
The newsagents’ owner, Anil, said stay-at-home mum Shaheen was “covered in sweat and shaking” when she returned to the store to inform him that she had won the life-changing sum.
The Stobswell local has already made plans on how she is going to spend her winnings.
Shaheen explained, “We currently live in a three-bedroom house. Now my husband and I will be able to buy a bigger home where the children can have their own bedrooms, which they are very excited about.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Dubai, but it was too expensive before, so we will definitely be going on a holiday there. It will also be nice to go shopping and treat myself as it always tends to be for the children.”
The latest win pushes Dundee even higher up Camelot’s winner’s rankings as, incredibly, the city has the sixth highest number of winners – £50,000 and above – per head of population in the UK.
Now my husband and I will be able tobuya bigger home. SHAHEEN AKHTAR