Emily Brown
A 44-year-old woman believes she's had a 'sign' from her late mum after she played her lottery numbers and ended up winning hundreds of pounds.
Kelly Firth's mum, Carol, passed away in May 2021 after experiencing a number of health issues, but prior to her death her daughter would buy her Lotto Hotpicks tickets every week, always with the same numbers - 7, 17 and 37.
Carol allowed the machine at the shops to generate the final numbers on the ticket, and would play twice for the Wednesday and Saturday draws.
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Kelly was reminded of this tradition while clearing out her mum's flat after she died, so she decided to play them at the shops, once again with a line on Wednesday and Saturday.
Discussing her decision, Kelly said: "We did the same numbers for mum for years and never - never did she win. I decided to carry them on in remembrance of mum. I went to my local shop about two months after she passed and placed them on two tickets for Wednesday and Saturday's Lotto Hotpicks draw."
When Wednesday's draw came and went with no luck, Kelly decided to give up and rip up the tickets. However, it soon become clear that she'd acted a little too hastily, because when watching the draw on Saturday she recognised the numbers which came up.
Kelly recalled: "Watching the TV on Saturday night, I recognised mum's numbers but I'd already ripped up the tickets and binned them. My heart dropped. I was jumping for joy one minute, telling mum we had won and that I knew she was around because she knew I needed this, and then panicking the next."
The grandmother-of-four rushed to the bins and began searching through the liners, thankfully managing to find the tickets with the barcode intact.
"I was shouting to mum that we'd won, and I put the radio on to celebrate, and mum's favourite song which I played at her funeral was playing," Kelly recalled.
With 'You're Simply the Best' by Tina Turner blasting out the radio, Kelly felt it 'just confirmed that [her] mum really was still there'.
"I couldn't believe I won when mum never did, and I just knew she was still around looking after me when the numbers came up. I'm still in shock and always will be. It was a sign from mum and I still can't believe it," she said.
As each prize on Kelly's two tickets was worth £800, she managed to take home a total of £1,600. She spent the winnings on a trip to Blackpool with her family, explaining that it 'would have meant a lot' to her mum that her numbers helped the family 'make some special memories'.