Syndicate’s Christmas Scratchcard gifts are ‘Claus’ for celebration

Rebecca Frater’s family will be sharing the amazing prize that was scratched off by her mother-in-law as they were about to enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner.

Rebecca, 54, likes to make the Christmas dinner table special and believes the best way to do it is to put a National Lottery Scratchcard on everyone’s place-setting. She said, “It always adds a bit of extra excitement and anticipation and it’s a lot of fun watching everyone scratching their Scratchcards.

“We agreed at the start of dinner that we would all scratch them at the same time and if anyone won we would share the prize. Initially one member of the family won £4 and we were all super excited. Then a second won £2 and we thought this is great – two wins.

“Finally, as my mother-in-law scratched her Scratchcard, she just had a look of total confusion on her face. She said, ‘I don’t understand this, I have a seven? What does it mean?’ We very quickly realised that this meant we had won the top prize! The whole moment, when I think back now, was just quite surreal!”

Dinner was put on hold as Rebecca, her son, sister and daughter-in-law, ran to the nearest shop to confirm their win. She said, “We burst into the local shop – desperate to hear the machine make that sound which indicates you are a winner – and it did!

“We were literally jumping up and down as the shop assistant told us it was too large a sum to pay out. My daughter-in-law said she wanted to celebrate with a cocktail! We went home and were all too shocked and excited to eat our Christmas dinner! It was champagne and cocktails all round.”

Rebecca said it was her husband’s desire to try an unusual sandwich that led them to buy the lucky National Lottery Scratchcard in the first place. She said, “We don’t normally go to Tesco but Nigel had spotted their special Pigs in Blanket sandwich and really wanted to try it.

“So, I said, ‘you go and grab a sandwich and I will get some last-minute gifts’. The Scratchcards caught my eye, so I bought a selection of them for the Christmas dinner table. If we hadn’t gone to Tesco for a festive sarnie on that day we wouldn’t have bought the Scratchcards and we certainly wouldn’t be celebrating being £100,000 winners today!”

The couple, who are both retired, have already made a couple of dream purchases. Rebecca has snapped up a Mulberry bag and Nigel has bought a top-of-the-range set of bowls.

Other members of the winning syndicate are Rebecca’s sons, Isaac Frater, 21, and Thomas Warrington, 28, and Thomas’ girlfriend Chloe Mennell, 30. Rebecca’s sister, Angela Lathan, 62 and Rebecca’s mother-in-law, Kathleen Frater, 76, are also part of the winning group.

Rebecca said, “You always think that things like this happen to other people. This just shows you – normal people like us do win!”

14th February 2024