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.
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Hide AdWhen 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.
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Hide Ad"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.
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Hide AdKelly 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."
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Hide AdKelly 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.
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Hide Ad"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."