A Whitley Bay woman netted an amazing Lotto prize after a gut instinct warned her away from a lucky dip ticket.
Bank worker Sam Gray matched the five main numbers in the National Lottery Set For Life draw on May 26. It meant she scored the second-best price on the draw, handing her £10,000 a month for the next year.
The 46-year-old spoke to reporters as she visited Little Haven beach, in South Shields, on Monday to celebrate her good fortune.
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Sam said: "Normally I would just go in and play three lucky dips every couple of weeks, but a couple of weeks ago I decided to play a line of numbers that I had had saved in my account for a couple of years and just hadn't used, and those were the numbers that won.
"They were just random, random numbers - it was slightly fate I think."
Sam, who loves her job, has no plans to take a break from working, but she'll enjoy an emotional family in Pefkos, Rhodes, where her family used to travel together, and where she'll also make a donation to the Greek dog shelter from which she adopted her own dog.
She said: "As a family, we had some amazing holidays in Rhodes and it holds a very special place in my heart, especially now my dad is no longer with us. So to be able to take my mum back there to relive some of those old memories and spend time together making new ones is incredible.
"I'm also planning to finally learn to drive - I'd put it off for years, as owning a car always seemed out of reach so I never saw the point of having lessons. However, I have no excuse now so will be making a block booking and can't wait to go shopping for my first car."
Sam will also spend some of the cash on renovating her home and making herself a swish home office.
She added: "I just couldn't believe it when I logged on to my National Lottery account to see that I'd won - it didn't seem real at all. I left a very garbled voicemail for my partner asking him to call me back and then somehow tried to concentrate on work that afternoon, all the while still in shock."
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