Woman from Yorkshire won the lottery after using her dead mum's numbers - even though she’d already binned the ticket

Kelly Firth, 44, from Halifax, bought her mother Carol's Lotto Hotpicks tickets every week, before the 65-year-old died.

She found the numbers written on a card while clearing her mother's flat months later - and played them at the shops, with a line on Wednesday and Saturday.

When her numbers didn't come up on the first draw she ripped up the ticket - but was astonished when three numbers came up on the weekend draw.

Kelly was celebrating and shouting to Carol's ashes on her TV stand when her mother's favourite song - 'You're Simply the Best' by Tina Turner - came on the radio.

Grandmother-of-four Kelly had to hunt through the flat's communal bins to find the scraps of her discarded tickets, which she pieced together, bagging her the £1,600 prize.

Full time mother-of-two Kelly said: "I still can't believe I won with mother's numbers.

"My daughter and I would nip to the shop for mother every week for her lottery.

"I couldn't believe I won when mother never did, and I just knew she was still around looking after me when the numbers came up.

"I'm still in shock and always will be. It was a sign from mother.”

Carol, who had a number of health issues, died in May 2021.

She played the numbers - 7, 17 and 37 - every week, letting the machine at the shops generate the final of the five numbers on the ticket.

Kelly did the same and didn't win on Wednesday, tore up the tickets, but three days later had TWO wins with 7, 17 and 37.

Each prize was worth £800, winning her a total of £1,600.

Kelly said: "I'd only just put my black bin out so I jumped in the big bin outside and pulled every black bin liner out and searched every one until I found the tickets which luckily still had the barcode intact.

"I was shouting to mother that we'd won, and I put the radio on to celebrate, and mother's favourite song which I played at her funeral was playing.

"It just confirmed that mother really was still there. I couldn't believe it."

Kelly took her ripped up tickets to her local shop where a shop assistant helped to piece them back together, before handing over the cash.

She spent the winnings on a family trip to Blackpool and believes her mother would have loved to know her numbers had brought joy.

Kelly said: "I took my little family on a little trip to Blackpool with the winnings - my daughter Demi, 26, and my four grandsons, Harley, 10, Coby Jay, eight, Addison Rio, five, and Kylan, four.

"My mother loved Blackpool and I know it would have meant a lot to her that her numbers helped us make some special memories.

"mother was my best friend, I miss her every day and I can't believe her numbers brought us so much luck. It was like she was still here with us.

"She was certainly looking down on us. All I knew was that she was still around, looking after her family."