A gran beat odds of more than 45 million-to-one and became the first person to buy two lucky dip tickets on the same day with the same numbers – but still didn’t win a penny.
Great-great-grandmother Doreen Wallace, 83, purchased the two lucky dip tickets with the same numbers – achieving astronomical odds without any success.
She drew 2, 3, 5, 15, 19 and, 54 from a random number generator from Rafferty Village Store in Eynsford, Kent, for the draws on Wednesday, 30 March, and Saturday, April 2.
Not even lottery organisers Camelot said they had never heard of anything like it happening before.
Doreen said: “I feel like I have done all right in life. I have all my children and grandchildren and was with my husband from 16 – married for 41 years. I have done fine.
“But it does seem a bit strange to get the same numbers.
“When I do it again I won’t be asking for lucky dip numbers – I will be doing my own lucky numbers.
“You never know what is round the corner. You never know what is going to happen until it drops.”
Doreen, who used to be a cleaner at the Old Bailey, said she’s been doing the lottery for 21 years and has never won more than £5.
Doreen has four children, eight grandchildren, five great grandchildren and a great great grandchild and said she’s still hopeful of a win but will select her own numbers from now on.
She said: “If I did win I would pay all my kids’ mortgages and buy a little place in Devon.”
Caroline Flanagan, 45, manager at Rafferty Village Store, where Doreen bought her tickets, said it was the first time she had come across anyone being given the same numbers on two tickets.
She said: “We are obviously a lucky store. I may even buy a ticket myself now.”
The chance of the lottery’s lucky dip machine picking the same numbers twice in a row is the same as actually winning the jackpot according to maths teacher Tim Jones.
Tim, who works at Sevenoaks School, said: “You are more likely to be hit by part of a plane falling from the sky than get the same numbers on two tickets.
“The probability of buying a second lottery ticket with exactly the same numbers as the first is exactly the same as that of winning the lottery outright – i.e. 1 in 45 million.”
