I died TWICE, lost my job & had to sell my home…then thought I won £500k in EuroMillions – until my luck got even BETTER
A MUM-of-three who “died twice” and was left penniless saw her luck dramatically change after winning big on the National Lottery.
Desirée Home, from Tunbridge Wells, said she’d “hit rock bottom” after she was forced to move into a mobile home while battling stage 3 bowel cancer.
She was diagnosed when she was 50 and needed invasive surgery and heavy bouts of chemotherapy, and described the following seven years as a “catalogue of horror”.
Desirée told Kent Online: “During my treatment, I ‘died’ twice from respiratory failure in the hospital and spent 11 days in ICU, halfway through chemo and unrelated to the cancer, I developed Cauda Equina Syndrome which required further surgery and to top it all, my husband and I lost our jobs.”
”With absolutely no money and mounting debts we had no choice but to sell our forever home and move away into a small mobile home, splitting up our family. I think you can safely say, we’d hit rock bottom. And then it all changed,” she said.
Then one day, while she was recovering at home, her husband Wayne called with the news that they had won £500,000 on the EuroMillions Lottery.
As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, he then called back to tell her that he’d got the numbers wrong – they’d actually won £1million.
EuroMillions winner loses out on whopping £1million lottery jackpot after making HUGE blunder
By Karim Camara
LOTTO bosses have revealed that a EuroMillions winner lost out on a whopping £1million jackpot after they made a huge blunder.
Allwyn, the operator of The National Lottery, confirmed that the £1,000,000 prize from the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Maker draw on April 16, 2024, has gone unclaimed for over 180 days since the draw.
The ticket holder bought their EuroMillions ticket in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
However, they missed the deadline to claim the prize, which was at midnight on October 13.
Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor at The National Lottery, said: “Unfortunately, I can confirm that the ticket-holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this substantial amount of money.
“However, the money will now add to the £30M raised each week for National Lottery-funded projects.”
Experts had previously warned lottery fans not to make a stupid mistake to risk losing out on mega jackpots.
Earlier this year, a lucky Brit hit bagged an eye-watering £12.6million.
Yet the winner still hasn’t claimed their huge cash prize.
To read the full story, click here.
She said that she can remember the moment “as clear as if it were yesterday” and said the money was a lifeline to rebuilding their lives.
“The phrase ‘you couldn’t write it’ springs to mind. I was standing on the bow of a boat spraying Champagne and holding a cheque with our names and a million pounds written on it, when just weeks before I had been juggling the sums and desperately trying to stay stress-free to aid my recovery,” she recalled.
Desirée and ex-submariner Wayne were finally able to treat their kids to incredible experiences like snorkelling in the Maldives.
Her tale of loss and luck inspired her to write a memoir about her life story.
She said she finally had the headspace to write after the cash injection aided the financial burden on their shoulders.
Her book, And then: One woman’s real-life story, from cancer diagnosis to losing the family home and then… a £1 million Lottery win, is on Amazon as a Kindle edition.