Daughter who won Lotto with dead mum’s numbers accidentally rips up and bins ticket

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Kelly Firth, from west Halifax, was celebrating the win 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

A woman won the lottery after using her dead mum ‘s numbers – days after she accidentally ripped up and binned the ticket.

Kelly Firth, 44, bought her mum Carol’s Lotto Hotpicks tickets every week, before she died aged 65.

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 both the Wednesday and Saturday draws.

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.

Full time mum-of-two 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.

Kelly, from west Halifax, said: “I still can’t believe I won with mum’s numbers. My daughter and I would nip to the shop for mum every week for her lottery.

“She had the same numbers on her little card that she gave me and always told me to put both sides on the numbers. We did the same numbers for mum for years and never – never did she win.

Kelly said she decided the carry on the numbers in remembrance of her mum, so went to her local shop around two months after she passed and placed her numbers on two tickets for the Wednesday and Saturday Lotto hotpicks draw.

“I couldn’t believe I won when mum never did,” Kelly said. “I just knew she was still around looking after me when the numbers came up.

“I’m still in shock and always will be. It was a sign from mum and I still can’t believe it.”

Carol, who had a number of health issues, died in May 2021.

She played the numbers – 7, 17 and 37 – every week, letting the machine at the shops generate the final of the five numbers on the ticket.

Carol would do this twice, producing two sets of nearly identical numbers, and placed them for the Wednesday and Saturday draws.

Kelly did the same and didn’t win on Wednesday, tore up the tickets, but three days later had TWO wins with 7, 17 and 37.

Each prize was worth £800, winning her a total of £1,600.

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.”