A HOLIDAY of a lifetime in the sunny Caribbean is on the cards for a Barnsley couple who won £50,000 from a £1 bet on the 49s lottery at Betfred.
Claire Shenton, 40, and husband Lee, 43, from Kendray, allowed their children to pick the five lucky numbers 6, 21, 34, 42 and 45 which were amongst the seven drawn out.
Now they plan to use their windfall to buy their eldest child a second-hand car and pay towards tuition fees for another two of their children.
They also want to upgrade their old Vauxhall car and escape the winter weather by going on a dream break to Jamaica.
Claire, a call centre worker, and Lee, who works in highways maintenance, celebrated their good fortune watching TV at home with a Chinese takeaway.
She said: “It’s not really sunk in yet. We’ve been doing the 49s for eight years and have had smaller wins including £5,000 on three occasions.
“The children picked four of the numbers ages ago and I remember they had a friend round that day and he picked the fifth and final number.
“We then stuck with those numbers every time and it’s a good job we did.
“Winning so much makes life so much better for us, helping the children’s education, sorting the cars out and I’d really love it if we have enough left to go to Jamaica, which is where I have always wanted to visit.”
Lee added: “It is amazing that we have won £50,000 from just a pound, I mean, what can you get with a pound?
“I’ve just been carrying on working, including overtime like I always do, filling in all the holes on the roads.”
The couple are regulars at the Betfred shop on Birk Avenue, Kendray, near their home where the bookie’s boss Fred Done arranged for them to be given a celebratory bottle of champagne.
Fred said: “It’s a good win for this hard-working couple and with the weather not being brilliant, it’s smashing that they are off to the Caribbean.
“Good luck to them. It’s fantastic that they won so much from a £1 bet.”
