A Braintree mum-of-five is hoping that a £700,000 lottery scratchcard win heralds a change in luck for her family.
Amelia Flack, 38, scooped the top prize on a National Lottery Winning 777 scratchcard after discovering her win while on a supermarket shop at Great Notley Tesco.
Amelia said: “Life has been really tough for years and now in the whisk of my lucky 2p coin I used to reveal the win, it might get a little better.
“My eldest daughter has ADHD and learning problems, my six-year-old was born with fluid on the brain and underwent surgery at 16 weeks, and my eldest son and youngest child both have a form of blood cancer.
“While the eldest is thankfully in remission, his three-year-old brother is currently undergoing chemo and we are waiting on a bone marrow transplant. “Hospital visits and managing medication is part and parcel of our daily life. While there’s always been plenty of love, things have been tough for us all.
“Sadly while this win can’t magically improve my children’s health, it can make their quality of life so much better and give us all much needed security and peace of mind.”
Amelia said she was stunned to scratch off three sevens which revealed the big win in the supermarket.
“I popped in with my daughter and as I left the store it’s as if the Winning 777 scratchcard was calling to me,” she said.
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I listened. I stood by the foreign exchange counter to play it and when I found the £700,000 symbol I think I went into shock.
“All I remember was the lady in the booth, who was on the phone, saying ‘I’m going to have to go, there’s a lady outside who doesn’t look very well’.
“She came out and asked me if I was okay and I just showed her the scratchcard and said ‘can you tell me there are really three sevens there, and does that say £700,000?’
“When she confirmed it was a winner I didn’t know what to do, thankfully the people in the shop helped me call Camelot who could verify the win.”
She added: “This is just beyond my wildest dreams. It’s not every day you win £700,000 and I’ll be savouring the experience for a long time to come.
“My first priority is a home for us all, somewhere closer to my mum in the Chelmsford area.
“I currently don’t have my own room and have slept on the floor for the past six years so that the children can sleep in beds so my own bed will be luxury enough for me.
“I’m also going to take us all on our first holiday. Until now that’s been a pipedream beyond our grasp, now it seems dreams really can come true.
“It won’t be anything grand, maybe a caravan park on the coast but being able to see my children carefree and happy will be the best part of the win for me.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here