Derry woman’s delight at £250k scratch card win
The Derry woman who scooped £250,000 on a scratch card has said she intends to celebrate her win with VIP passes to a number of summer festivals.
The Derry News revealed last week how a Derry woman won the money after buying a £2 National Lottery scratch card at the Mace store on Culmore Road on Saturday,August 1.
The lucky winner, Sharin McCourt, has now spoken of her shock at the moment she realised she was a quarter of a million pound better off.
“I wanted to make a nice meal for myself and my best friend, also called Sharon, so we went down to the shop to buy some bits and pieces,” she said.
“When I went to pay for my items I had a bit of money left over so I decided to buy two scratch cards, on a whim. Then we just headed home and I started to prepare dinner.”
She continued: “The first one wasn’t a winner, but the second one, well, that revealed three amounts of £250,000! My reaction was total disbelief.”
The 42-year-old said that, even a week later, the enormity of her win is still sinking in.
“Even now I find it hard to comprehend,” she continued.
“I asked my friend to check it and after her initial amazed reaction she confirmed I was right and it was a winner.
“When I look back now I think I was in complete shock.”
Sharin then took her card back to the Mace store, which is known locally as Myra’s.
“I decided that I’d take the scratch card to the shop where I bought it and see if they could confirm it and to my amazement they too said it was genuine,” she added.
“By this point it had started to sink in so when I called the National Lottery claim line and they also said it was real, I knew I’d finally won!”
An avid festival goer, Sharin said that she now plans to ditch the tents and hit her favourite summer festivals in style.
“To be honest, I lead a simple life so I don’t have any big plans yet,” she said.
“However, I’m an avid festival goer so it’ll be VIP all the way to my favourite festivals this year.
“I also plan to buy my life-long friend, Sharon, a new car as the one we travel to the festivals in has had more hits than Abba!”
She joked: “I’ll also get us some brand new wellington boots to keep our feet dry!”