A family syndicate from Essex had a Christmas gathering to remember when they revealed a £1,000,000 top prize win on a National Lottery Scratchcard.
The seven family members of the The Merry Millions Syndicate all have life-changing plans for their share of the win, a win which came about on Christmas Eve (24 December, 2019) thanks to a shortage of broccoli and spinach, and a Merry Millions Scratchcard from The National Lottery.
Syndicate leader, Hayley Parker (30) and her partner Matt Munn (28), were hosting a family Christmas Eve supper at their home in Romford when Hayley realised she was missing a couple of key ingredients. Popping quickly to the shops with another member of the family, the pair decided to buy everyone a scratchcard for a little pre-dinner treat. Hayley said,
“It was one of those spur of the moment decisions as we were paying for the veg. It’s amazing to think that meeting our 5-a-day gave us each £142,857.14!”
The £1M win was discovered when they all sat down to celebrate Christmas Eve. Among those joining Hayley and Matt for the feast were partners Ben Snookes (27) his wife Holly Snookes (28) and Hayley’s twin sister Kelly Parker (30). Hayley said,
“I’m a midwife and because I was working on Christmas Day we’d decided to celebrate on Christmas Eve instead. Having everyone around the table was a real treat and we were all in high spirits.”
It was Hayley who revealed the £1M top prize on the Merry Millions scratchcard but, having been the butt of a Christmas prank the previous year, she didn’t believe it when she saw the three symbols matched and a prize of £1M. She said,
“Last Christmas my step-dad gave me a joke scratchcard which said I’d won £1M so I thought this lot had done the same thing, but I just couldn’t work out how they could have switched it to give me another joke one. So I showed it to them saying ‘very funny’ but they all responded with cheers that we’d won big, which of course I just thought was an even bigger wind up!”
With Hayley convinced it was a joke, and the other six members of the syndicate wanting to check they’d won £1M, they all put on their coats and marched to the local shop to have the scratchcard checked on the terminal. When the shopkeeper confirmed they had better call Camelot they promptly marched home again so Hayley could put in the call. Matt said,
“We all waited in the lounge while Hayley was making the call to Camelot. We were so nervous, giggling like school kids, until Hayley ran into the room saying ‘it’s real!’. We all cheered loudly, not believing we’d each received such a life-changing early Christmas present, and then very promptly cracked into the Christmas booze!”
With the win now confirmed, the family members have each happily banked £142,857.14 and are busy making plans for the future. For Hayley and Matt, the win fasttracks their life plan, Hayley said,
“The house we bought a few years ago is a total renovation project which is still a work in process. This win means we can crack on with the work that needs doing rather than having to save up for each bit of work, and then we can focus on the next stage of our life together.”
The other members of the family syndicate all have a range of plans including a new car and a move to Germany. Syndicate members Holly and Ben also have plans to move.
Ben and Holly, who are recently married and expecting their first child at the end of the month, will be able to move his new family from their one-bed flat into a family home with plenty of room for the little one.
Still unable to believe their Christmas luck, Hayley said,
“It’s certainly made 2019 a Christmas to be remembered for us all, and for me personally, the icing on the cake was that I also delivered my first Christmas Day baby, a healthy little baby girl. I’m not sure how we top this for Christmas 2020!”
The Merry Millions Syndicate’s winning Merry Millions scratchcard from The National Lottery was bought at The Co-operative, Station Road, Romford. The Merry Millions scratchcard offers a 1 in 3.49 overall chance of winning a prize. The card costs £5 and prizes range from £5 up to the top prize of £1,000,000.
Across the last 25 years The National Lottery has had a transformational effect on the United Kingdom. A staggering £40 billion has been raised for Good Causes with 565,000 grants made across arts, sport, heritage and community. That’s the equivalent of 200 life-changing projects in every UK postcode district. Players have banked a whopping £73 billion in prizes and a staggering 5,500 millionaires have been made.
