A daughter has won the lottery after using dead mum's numbers and accidently ripping up and binning the ticket. Before the 65-year-old died, Kelly Firth, 44, bought her mum Carol's Lotto Hotpicks tickets every week.
She happened to find the numbers written on a card while clearing her mum's flat months later - and played them at the shops, with a line on Wednesday and Saturday. The full time mum-of-two ripped up the ticket when her numbers didn't come up on the first draw but was astonished when three numbers came up on the weekend draw.
Grandmother-of-four Kelly was celebrating and shouting to Carol's ashes on her TV stand and was interrupted when her mum's favourite song, 'You're Simply the Best' by Tina Turner, came on the radio. Kelly had to hunt through the flat's communal bins to find the scraps of her discarded tickets which she then pieced together to bag her the £1,600 prize.
Kelly said: "I still can't believe I won with mum's numbers. My daughter and I would nip to the shop for mum every week for her lottery.
"She had the same numbers on her little card that she gave me and always told me to put both sides on the numbers. 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.
"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."
Carol, Kelly's mum, had a number of health issues before she passed in May 2021. Every week, she played the numbers - 7, 17 and 37 letting the machine at the shops generate the final of the five numbers on the ticket. She would do this twice, producing two sets of nearly identical numbers, and placing them for the Wednesday and Saturday draws.
Kelly did the same but didn't win on Wednesday and tore up the tickets. Three days later however she had two wins with 7, 17 and 37 with each prize being worth £800, winning her a total of £1,600.
Kelly said: "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.
"I'd only just put my black bin out so I jumped in the big bin outside and pulled every black bin liner out and searched every one until I found the tickets which luckily still had 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. It just confirmed that mum really was still there. I couldn't believe it."
Kelly went local shop where a shop assistant helped to piece the ripped up pieces back together, before handing over the cash. She spent the winnings on a family trip to Blackpool and believes her mum would have loved to know her numbers had brought joy.
"I took my little family on a little trip to Blackpool with the winnings," Kelly said. "My daughter Demi, 26, and my four grandsons, Harley, 10, Coby Jay, eight, Addison Rio, five, and Kylan, four. My mum loved Blackpool and I know it would have meant a lot to her that her numbers helped us make some special memories.
"Mum was my best friend, I miss her every day and I can't believe her numbers brought us so much luck. It was like she was still here with us. She was certainly looking down on us. All I knew was that she was still around, looking after her family."
