Woman wins lottery with dead mother's numbers and spends winnings on trip to Blackpool
A daughter celebrated winning the lottery with a trip to Blackpool after using her dead mum's numbers - and accidently ripping up and binning the ticket.
Kelly Firth, 44, bought her mum Carol's Lotto Hotpicks tickets every week, before the 65-year-old died.
She found the numbers written on a card while clearing her mum'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 mum'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.
Mum-of-two Kelly said:
Kelly said: "Watching the TV on Saturday night, I recognised mum's numbers but I'd already ripped up the tickets and binned them.
"My heart dropped. I was jumping for joy one minute, telling mum we had won and that I knew she was around because she knew I needed this, and then panicking the next.
"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 mum that we'd won, and I put the radio on to celebrate, and mum's favourite song which I played at her funeral was playing.
"It just confirmed that mum 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 mum 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 mum loved Blackpool and I know it would have meant a lot to her that her numbers helped us make some special memories.
"Mum 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."