We have all lost something at one time and keys are high on the list. Imagine losing your keys and becoming flustered to the point where you are late and you decide to pop into a newsagent to buy a few things and purchase a scratch card, something you would not ordinarily do.
Now put yourself in that state and imagine that you are on the street outside, ready to get in the car and after scratching the card, you find out you have won £250,000.
I guess most of us would feel the same way as Michelle Newton, who became ‘lightheaded’ having won but also realising that the loss of the keys had probably led to this moment.
50-year-old Michelle Newton, a teacher, and her husband John, a school caretaker, had gone out to do some Christmas shopping in December when they had the key mishap.
The couple from Tunbridge Wells paid for the card at a newsagent on Camden Road with some loose change they had and as they say, the rest is history.
Michelle said, “We scratched the card outside the shop and just stopped dead in our tracks. I looked at John and said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ We were in complete shock, standing there in the street with cars whizzing past.”
John, 61, added: “We kept looking at the scratch card, wondering what to do next. Michelle was feeling lightheaded, so we thought a drink would calm our nerves. It was a mad day—if we hadn’t lost our keys, we’d have gone into the newsagents at a different time and bought a different scratch card. We might never have won a thing.”
Michelle added, “I’m still in shock, but I’m looking forward to being more relaxed about money. It’s been a whirlwind few weeks—John hasn’t slept much, and until the lady from the National Lottery turned up, we hid the scratch card in the lining of John’s coat.
"We’d keep getting it out and looking at it over and over. I still can’t believe we have won."
Before you go losing your keys, make sure you have some spare change and just get yourself in a bit of a state, be late and throw caution to the wind, and buy a scratch card at the newsagents. Not that we are encouraging you to gamble, but if you do, gamble responsibly, and you never know, it could be you.
Most of my career was spent in teaching including at one of the UK’s top private schools. I left London in 2000 and set up home in Wales raising four beautiful children. I enrolled at University where I studied Photography and film and gained a Degree and subsequently a Masters Degree. In 2014 I helped launch a new local newspaper and managed to get front and back page as well as 6 filler pages on a weekly basis. I saw that journalism was changing and was a pioneer of hyperlocal news in Wales. In 2017 I started one of the first 24/7 free independent news sites for Wales. Having taken that to a successful business model I was keen for a new challenge. Joining the company is exciting for me especially as it is a new role in Europe. I am keen to establish myself and help others to do the same.
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