Woman used her house deposit money to go see Wales play in the World Cup
A woman from Wales has decided to defer buying a house to watch her nation compete in the World Cup.
Lauren McNie had saved up to get a place of her own, but when the opportunity arose to see Wales play in their first World Cup for 64 years, it was a no-brainer.
Watch her talk about the decision here:
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Lauren and her sister Kerrin are big Wales fans and have been going to away games for decades, so when they had a chance to watch them play in Qatar, Lauren knew she'd have to shift some funds to get out there.
Speaking from Doha, Lauren told Good Morning Britain: "I had the deposit saved up but then when we qualified, I just sort of diverted some of the money I had saved towards the trip.
"I can take another couple of years and save up a bit more and get a house then when the time's right and I've seen my country at the World Cup."
She added: "We've waited for this our whole lives so there was no way we were going to miss it."
Now, it might seem like a shortsighted decision to some, but Kerrin was not in the least bit surprised.
She said: "I would expect nothing less, I didn't think it would be an issue.
"I assumed that was how it was going to go. We knew that we were going to come out here."
Wales got their campaign under way against USA on Monday (21 November), earning a 1-1 draw after captain Gareth Bale dispatched a penalty eight minutes from full-time.
The sisters were watching on from the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium and they've been loving the experience thus far.
"It's been incredible," Kerrin said.
"It's been quite surreal at times but yeah, we're enjoying every minute of it so far."
Wales will take on Iran tomorrow (Friday 25 November), and the sisters are more than confident of a good result; however, the big match against England on Tuesday (29 November) is a much more nerve-racking prospect.
"I think the atmosphere is going to be very different there," Lauren said. "That's the one I'm more nervous about.
"The Iran one I'm pretty confident about but the England game - that's going to be the big one."
But ever the optimist, Kerrin believes that Wales can take six points away from the group stages of the next two games, but said they need to 'step up' from their opening match.
Jake Massey