Heart’s second £1m prize winner to make donation to children’s hospital
A MOTHER-OF-FIVE has become a millionaire live on radio as she won a competition on Heart Breakfast.
Burger van owner Shelley Humphries, from Northampton, is the second winner of Heart’s Make Me A Millionaire competition, which was launched last year.
Ms Humphries said she plans to make a donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where her two nieces received treatment.
She told Heart presenters Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston: “I have two nieces that they helped at a very, very young age, at six weeks old both of them, and they still continue to use them.”
This year’s Make Me A Millionaire competition launched in March and over the last three months winners have been able to choose to either take that day’s prize money or instead enter the final to win the £1 million.
During a dramatic live finale, 38 people in the running for the top prize were whittled down to nine, selected at random by a lottery machine.
A 10th finalist was chosen live on air in the final round.
The finalists then each chose a numbered safety deposit box to be opened from within a secure vault by presenter Holden.
Nine of the boxes contained the message “Heart Make Me £1,000 richer”, with the remaining box containing the £1 million winning message.
Holden, who donned a sparkly red dress for the occasion, said: “We are so thrilled for our wonderful winner Shelley. It truly has been the most incredible and emotional morning on Heart Breakfast, and it was our great privilege to crown Shelley as our very worthy winner.
“All of us at Heart send all our best wishes and many congratulations to Shelley and her family.”
Theakston added: “This morning was very special on Heart Breakfast as we crowned the winner of Heart’s Make Me a Millionaire. It was a great honour to share this lifechanging moment with Shelley. Make Me a Millionaire is the biggest competition in UK radio and the suspense and drama that we’ve witnessed over the past 13 weeks has captivated listeners.
“We’d like to thank everyone who took part and we send huge congratulations to Shelley.”
Ms Humphries was the eighth person to select a deposit box and said both the numbers she had wanted to choose had gone, leading her to select the winning box – which was number two.
She had turned down a prize of £10,000 in March in order to be in the running for the £1 million prize.
Last year’s prize was won by key worker Tommy Norton, who received the news while parked at the side of the road in his van.