£300KThousand winners Linda and Stewart plan trip to Northern Lights

Linda and Stewart Priston are both key workers and have been busier than ever during the pandemic. But the 56-year-old NHS worker and the 57-year-old HGV driver are planning on taking some time off in 2022 to celebrate their anniversary with a dream holiday to see the Northern Lights.

Linda and Stewart’s winning adventure began when Linda sat down after a day of household admin and chores, and logged on to her online National Lottery account. Treating herself to a Luxury Lines Instant Win Game, her day suddenly became anything but average when she revealed the £300,000 prize.

Linda, who has worked for the NHS for more than 17 years, said, “Stewart was on a night shift so home alone for another evening I decided to entertain myself with a little play on an online Instant Win Game. When the £300KThousand prize appeared on my screen, quickly followed by the claim telephone number I was sure there must be a mistake so I put my iPad down, walked away and made myself a cup of tea instead!”

With cuppa in hand and her nerves calmed, Linda logged back into her account. Still convinced it was a mistake, she decided to call the claim line, ‘just in case’.

Linda said, “It turns out it was right, they confirmed I had just won £300KThousand. At that point I took a photo of the screen with the win amount and sent this to Stewart, and then I poured myself a glass of wine! I rang Stewart as well but I don’t think he really believed me until he came home at 1am and could see it on the screen for himself.

“We kept it our secret for 3 days and didn’t tell another soul – except our 2 sons! – until we went to our local, The Three Hats, on Saturday for a drink and shared the news with the landlady and a few of our closest friends. It was a lovely moment, everyone was over the moon and said how delighted they were to see a local couple win, especially a couple that work as hard as we do!”

9th August 2021