We won in gold bars with the Mail’s treasure hunt And it could be YOU this week
‘I still feel like it’s not real’
WHILE pottering on their allotment at the weekend, Wendy Bedford and husband Ralph struck gold – a treasure chest stuffed with £50,000 worth of it.
Mrs Bedford, from Coulsdon in Surrey, spent last week cracking clues and solving riddles in the Daily Mail’s Great Summer Treasure Hunt, in the hope of revealing the cryptic answer.
And after submitting her entry for the jackpot of £50,000 worth of gold bars, it all came up roses for the 58-year-old nurse... although her dahlia didn’t fare so well.
Mrs Bedford said: ‘We do a lot of gardening, and we’d come to the allotment.
‘I’d brought my phone with me and my brother-in-law, on the next allotment, said that it was ringing. I ran and picked it up and the lady told me I’d won. So I shouted for my husband and he ran up the allotment, fell over and broke the dahlia.
‘It was all quite exciting, all surreal, really. I still feel like it’s not real. This is the first time I’ve entered a competition so I totally wasn’t expecting to win.’
Mrs Bedford, who works as a community nurse manager at Royal Marsden Hospital, has read the Daily Mail for 40 years – but this is the first time she has entered one of our competitions.
now she plans to split the prize four ways – with her 61-year- old husband and her sons Daniel, 30, and Thomas, 27, who did not believe his mother when she broke the news that she had pocketed the £50,000 jackpot.
She added: ‘My youngest son doesn’t believe us. I’ve just been Whats-Apping my family. I need to phone him and say, “yes, it really is true”.’
They are now planning a family meal in a top London restaurant to celebrate, but haven’t decided which one yet.
And despite having booked a holiday on Corfu, the couple may now use some of the prize to go on a luxury trip.
Mrs Bedford solved the six puzzles in last week’s papers, where she cracked clues and unscrambled an anagram to reveal a six-letter word associated with the Great British Summer, which turned out to be ‘Hotdog’.
Ten runners-up each bagged £1,000. Patrick Connolly, from Birmingham, plans to use his winnings to finance a holiday to Devon.
The 67-year-old said: ‘I was over the moon. I was delighted because I’ve never won anything before. I’m going to Devon so the money will go towards that.’ Patricia Corregan, who also won a runners-up prize of £1,000, said it had been a surprise as she had been waiting for the winners’ calls, which were due between 9am and 11am on Saturday.
The 71-year-old, who lives in the market town of Strathaven in South Lanarkshire, said: ‘When the phone didn’t go at half past 11 I thought to myself, “I didn’t win.” So it was a great surprise when it then rang.’ For those who didn’t have lady luck on their side, the hunt is on again this week in the Daily Mail’s Great Summer Treasure Hunt.
All you have to do is solve a series of puzzles before unscrambling a final word associated with the Great British Summer to win £50,000 in gold bars. A winner will be drawn at random
on Saturday.