Lottery ‘glitch’ saw me miss £500,000 jackpot after system ‘lagged’… it took 24 long hours for the penny to drop

A LUCKY lottery winner nearly missed that he had scooped a £500,000 jackpot after he “assumed” there was a lag on the system.

A computer maintenance engineer is finally celebrating his £500,000 lottery win a year after having surgery for cancer.

The win comes after a painful 24 hours of waiting as John Lingard, from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, said he initially saw no increase on his bank account’s available funds.

“I assumed there must be a lag or something on the system, so went to work and didn’t give it another thought,” he said.

“Even when I logged on later that day to buy my EuroMillions ticket, I didn’t look more deeply into the message that popped up congratulating me on a win.

“It was only 24 hours later that I finally read my messages and the penny started to drop, although not fully, because at first glance I thought it was £500.10.

“I was just on my way out the door, heading to the supermarket, but when I worked out that it was actually £500,000 plus £10 on another line, I decided driving wasn’t a good idea so walked to the local shop,” he added.

John bought a Lucky Dip ticket for the September 25 draw via the National Lottery app, and his winning numbers were 13, 15, 18, 30 and 33 with Thunderball number 7.

He said he “felt like I was on cloud nine” when he realised he had won £500,000 in the Thunderball draw.

The engineer’s lotto success follows a nasty cancer diagnosis which saw him have one of his kidneys removed to stop the spread of the disease.

He has since been given the all clear.

The 66-year-old plans on spending some of his winnings with friends in Tenerife – a place he visited a year ago to find some peace and calm after he was first diagnosed.

“It’s crazy to think that at the start of the year I would come to the beach to find inner peace in all the turmoil of the treatment and my worries about the future,” he said.

He added: “I couldn’t have dreamt that less than 12 months later I would be here celebrating a National Lottery win!”

His trip will be the first week of unpaid leave for the engineer since he started work at 16.

“I visit Tenerife three or four times a year, but when I left in September I told friends I probably couldn’t make it back before early 2025,” he said.

“Now, thanks to my Thunderball luck, I can afford to take a week off – unpaid – and head back for a little winter sun, and to celebrate with my friends over there,” he continued.

The engineer also said he might do a little house-hunting while on the island to have a “bolthole for the future” and so that he can share some of his fortune with those closest to him.

John added that he has no plans to retires but is keen to spend his money doing fun things with friends.

But first it will take some time adjusting to his new fortune.

He said: “I started playing when the National Lottery first began 30 years ago and, while all along I’ve believed that one day I would win big, now it’s happened it’s taken a bit of getting used to!”

“And having been through such a challenging time with my cancer diagnosis and treatment, I want to be sure I make the most of every moment, whether that’s work, rest or play.”