I thought I’d won £1k in the Postcode Lottery & was thrilled – but mistake left me close to tears
A GREAT-grandmother was celebrating when she thought she’d won £1,000 on the lottery – but welled up when she realised her mistake.
Shirley Hehir, 83, scooped £66,666 alongside her neighbours in Folkestone, Kent in the People’s Postcode Lottery last week.
But, when the gran first heard she’d won, she thought she’d only landed £1,000 – and was happy.
Her mistake almost brought her to tears.
Shirley said: “Oh Lord almighty – never in my life have I seen a cheque that big. It’s wonderful.
“It feels amazing. I think I’m going to cry. £1,000 I thought. I did, I did.”
The great-grandmother, who goes to tea dances four times a week, is already planning on how she’ll spend her winnings.
Shirley said she wants to buy a bigger car and treat her family.
The 83-year-old continued: “I might have a new car. I’d like to go up to something just a bit bigger. And I’ll give all my grandchildren something.
“I’m nearly 84, I think I should treat myself. And I’ll maybe have a party for my daughter. She’s 60 this year.”
Shirley was hit with double tragedy in 2003 when her soldier son Leslie died during the Iraq War – just months after losing husband Jim to leukaemia.
But, she still finds the positives in situations.
The brave gran continued: “It is hard to bear, and it never goes away, but then I also think how lucky I am.
“My daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren keep me going.”
One of her neighbours, Army veteran Malcolm Blanche, managed to scoop cash too – but he landed four times as much.
The 72-year-old won a massive £266,664 in the saw People’s Postcode draw by playing the same numbers.
How does the People's Postcode Lottery work?
ACCORDING to the official website, players sign up with their postcode and pay £12 per month.
They are automatically entered into every draw and prizes are announced every day of the month.
Tickets play for prizes every day of the week – from Monday to Sunday, a ticket could win £1,000 each day in the Daily Prize.
Tickets could also win a jackpot of £30,000 in Saturday and Sunday’s Street Prize draws.
People’s Postcode Lottery also offer a £3 Million Postcode Millions draw each month – and your ticket plays for a share of a £3 Million cash prize fund.
Winners are notified by email, SMS message, mail or phonecall depending on the prize they win.
Jackpot winners are visited by the lottery team in person.
Malcolm and his wife Carolyn bought two tickets each when they signed up to the lotto draw two years ago.
And even when Carolyn tragically died in 2019, he carried on playing with her tickets as well as his own.
Malcolm said: “I just decided to keep them on. She’d be over the moon and shaking right now.
“When I saw the first cheque, I thought ‘That’ll do’, then it came again, again and again.
“I’m chuffed when I get a tenner.”
And two of Shirley and Malcom’s other neighbors have opened up about their win, too.
Primary teacher Kendra and carpenter Simon Charman landed the £66,666 – and they’ve already come to an agreement.
Kendra told her husband he can get a new motorbike after their win – but only if he obeys one rule.
Lotto winner who landed £3.6m find new man
A LOTTO winner accused of dumping her boyfriend after they landed a jackpot worth £3.6million and keeping the winnings is enjoying a lavish lifestyle – with a new man.
Laura Hoyle, 40, and Kirk Stevens, 39, won a ‘set for life’ prize of £10,000 per month for 30 years in 2021 – and the paranormal-loving pair revealed plans to launch a ghost-hunting business.
But a year later Kirk told The Sun how Laura – to whom he had planned to propose – had dumped him, taken the winnings and moved alone into the £500,000 Nottingham home they had planned to share.
She was able to claim the jackpot after the split as the winning ticket had been bought using her card.
Now new man Graham Jones is enjoying the lifestyle Kirk once thought would be his – with Laura posting a string of loved-up photos of the romance on social media.
One pal has hailed the pair – thought to have been dating for around a year – as a “beautiful couple” while another gushed: “Great to see you happy.”
The pictures have devastated Kirk, who previously told the Sun: “Laura had told me we’d live the life of Riley if we won.”
Lotto winner Laura’s Facebook page reveals she is enjoying the glam life – with holidays, a sleek new look and a trip to the Strictly ballroom in Blackpool.
But on her arm is Graham, rather than irked Kirk.
Engineer Kirk previously told The Sun he had let Laura live in his three-bedroom home rent-free if she paid £25-a-week into lotto on their behalf.
After landing the Set for Life prize in March 2021, Laura quit her job at Hermes and the pair bought a Porsche Cayenne, as well paying for Kirk’s Master’s degree, with him recalling: “We had plans for the future.
“We were going to buy properties together and build an empire.”
But their relationship fell apart in 2022, just 16 months after their win.
Kirk previously said: “I wanted to try to fix it but Laura wasn’t interested. It was like the money gave her confidence to throw it all away.
“She became snobbish and superior..when it became clear we were not going to work things out, I asked her: ‘What about our Lottery win?’ She said, ‘It’s not ours, it’s mine’.”
The pair used to share videos of their spooky adventures on their YouTube channel, ‘K & L Ghost Hunters’.
Since their split, Kirk has documented his solo paranormal pursuits on ‘Ghost Hunter Kirk’, which has around 6,000 subscribers.
She made it “very clear” to Kirk at the time that the money was hers and hers alone, and that the £1,000 she had previously been paying him every month was “rent” and not a share of the winnings.
After the split, Kirk said that all he wanted was 10 per-cent of the win: “I just want ten per cent. If she continues to pay me £1,000 a month, I’ll happily walk away. She won’t even notice it.”
Just months later, in September 2022, Kirk revealed new fears that Laura would take his dogs away and said that would hurt more than losing out on the cash.
The former couple shared two cocker spaniels, Teddy and Barney, and had a joint custody arrangement.
But Kirk was worried Laura would fight him for sole custody of the dogs.
He said at the time: “The only communication we have now is over the dogs. We both own them and are splitting time with them. I may not have any lotto money but at least I still have the boys.
“These dogs mean the world to me. I hope she never takes them away from me. I couldn’t bear that. It hurts to lose the money we won together but it would hurt even more to lose the dogs.”
Kirk didn’t respond to requests for comment. He last spoke in April last year when he said: “I would like to just put all this behind me. I’ve moved house and jobs also, to just get away from everything.”