A £9.5m Christmas bonus(

But first you must find that winning Lotto ticket

IT is the kind of prize that makes you think all your Christmases have come at once.

But nearly six months after buying a winning National Lottery ticket, it appears the owner is unaware he or she is £ 9.5million richer.

And with the 180- day deadline for claiming prizes approaching, the potential millionaire could be transformed from the luckiest person in Doncaster to the unluckiest.

For £9.5million, the winner could buy into one of London’s most exclusive areas with a three bedroom, ground-floor maisonette in Park Lane boasting its own gym, cinema and swimming pool. He or she could also afford a 140ft yacht or – if in Roman Abramovich’s league – cover the cost of running a 370ft super yacht for 18 months.

But if the ticket-holder does not come forward by 5.30pm on January 2 the life- changing Lotto jackpot of £9,476,995 will go to the Good Causes fund.

It would become the largest National Lottery prize unclaimed in the decade since the competition began – surpassing a ticket worth £ 7million bought in Belfast in August 2004. The winning ticket was bought in north- east Doncaster for the Wednesday, July 6, Lotto draw.

It was the day Britain won the 2012 Olympics and the day before the London terrorist bombings. James Blunt was top of the charts at the time with You’re Beautiful.

One person picked all six winning lottery numbers – 3, 12, 17, 36, 44 and 49.

Camelot, the operator of the National Lottery, is on a final drive to jog the memory of the mystery ticket-holder.

It is urging all players in the Doncaster area to check and doublecheck their old tickets, search coat pockets and turn out their wallets and bags – then do it all again.

‘ This really is a life- changing amount of money and we are really keen to unite the winner with their prize,’ said a company spokesman.

‘ The draw date was very memorable as we were all celebrating winning the bid to host the 2012 Olympics that morning.’

An appeal made in August for the winner to come forward failed.

Yesterday, stars of Aladdin at Doncaster’s Civic Theatre joined in efforts to find the winner by asking the audience to check their old tickets.

Over the years a series of lottery prizes have been lost. In 2001, a Watford man convinced Camelot he had lost a ticket worth £3million. But he failed to comply with the rule that lost ticket claims must be made within 30 days of the draw.

Two years ago, a $50million prize – worth £31million at the time – went unclaimed in the Florida lottery.

In some cases players who could easily have missed out have ended up celebrating. Earlier this year, a £5million winning ticket was left in a plastic beaker on a kitchen shelf for more than a month before one of the 12 women who bought it for a Derby syndicate realised their good fortune.