£1m ticket left under tree for two days

Karen Shaw and her family won £1m in the special EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle on December 23, but did not check their numbers until two days later.

After opening presents with her husband, Anthony, 43, and children Sara, 22, and Karl, 20, at their home in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, she did not look at the winning ticket until around 4pm.

Mrs Shaw, 44, who manages a sheltered housing scheme, said she had bought tickets for each of them on a whim.

She said: “We eventually all sat down around 4pm on Christmas Day to open the presents and I remembered the tickets. I had put them in an envelope under the tree.

“Karl was looking at numbers on his phone and suddenly said ‘You had better check it – I think it’s a winner’.”

She added: “It is unbelievable that we had £1m under our tree all that time.”

They planned to buy houses for their children, while she also wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise with her husband.

The family, who bought their winning ticket in an Asda store in Kendal, were one of the 25 ticket-holders who banked £1m in the draw.