A pensioner who thought she had secured a life-changing sum of £34 million was left distraught after her dreams were shot down almost instantly.
On thinking she had just become a EuroMillions winner at the grand age of 72, Margaret De Micheli, waltzed down to her local post office, where the person behind the desk confirmed that she had indeed won the money.
Margaret purchased what she thought was the winning ticket from the draw on March 29, but a belated check of her winning cut short her celebrations.
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The Sun reports that although the post office had issued her with confirmation of the mega jackpot, she was advised to double and triple-check the numbers.
After doing so, one did not match up, leaving Margaret devastated while at her nearby Tesco store in Swiss Cottage, North London.
After contacting the National Lottery they confirmed her hopes of a retirement for her 78-year-old husband had been crushed.
And since then her husband, who she has been married to for 54 years, is still unable to retire due to the service charges they're required to pay on their home.
Her husband has to get to work for 5.15am as he's a traffic warden and doesn't finish until 4.45pm, and life since the heart-breaking false dawn has meant they are still forced live in a mouldy flat.
She said the high of believing they had won the jackpot to then being told they were returning to their damp and mouldy London flat was particularly crushing.
She told The Sun: "We're back to normal. My husband is back at work, I wanted to win something so he could afford to retire.
"We'd like to be able to move out of the flat. It's due for refurbishment this year, they're putting new windows.
"It's very, very hard. We would like to move out of the flat to somewhere by the seaside. I've managed to brush all the mould off the windows now."
However, the grandmother has still not given up hope of the winning the jackpot as she does Set For Life, the normal Lotto and the EuroMillions.
And despite not winning the £34million jackpot, she would be happy with £25k or a similar amount so her husband could retire and they could live comfortably.
