Woman wins £250,000 on scratchcard she had forgotten about
The 27-year-old is planning to use her winnings on travel and may also use it to retrain as a hairdresser.
A woman has scooped £250,000 on the Lottery after buying a £2 scratchcard to get change for a parking meter.
Marilyn Scott, 27, forgot about the ticket until the following day when she got to work, after buying it at a newsagent in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, to break a £10 note.
The call centre worker, from Kilmarnock, was “on cloud nine” after discovering she had won £250,000 on the purple scratchcard.
She said: “When I saw it in my handbag I actually thought to myself ‘I could have been sitting here all day yesterday a winner’ – little did I know that I was right.
“Once I’d scratched it I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to ask a couple of my colleagues to check if it was real, I thought there might be a misprint. I was flapping about the office by this point and they told me to go back to the shop to find out.
“The newsagent told me I’d have to phone Camelot but it was only 8am and the phone line didn’t open until 9am. Everyone in the office was touching my lucky scratchcard and I was floating about on cloud nine.
“My boss sent me home so I could make the call at 9am. Before I left I cancelled my overtime for the next day and the weekend – I was so excited that I didn’t think I’d be in any state to work.”
The 27-year-old is planning to use her winnings on travel and may also use it to retrain as a hairdresser, open her own shop and buy a house. It appears she has a lucky streak as she has won several other prizes in recent years.
She said: “Once I’d made the call to Camelot I was jumping about the house with my mum. I phoned my stepdad, my two sisters and a couple of my closest friends. Mum had to head out to work but I was still bouncing around.
“Most of the people I told said ‘That’s just your luck, Marilyn’ because I win things quite a lot. I won £1,000 a few years ago when I texted in to a local radio station competition. At work recently there was a raffle for the top-performing staff and I won £1,000 of travel vouchers.
“My friend lives in Australia and she has been asking me to go over to see her for years. When I won the vouchers I thought now is my chance and booked flights. I have a working and travelling visa so I intended to stay a while but now it really is going to be the trip of a lifetime.”
