'I was in disbelief': Ticket left in old handbag worth €100k for Cork woman

A Cork woman almost missed out on winning €100,000 after she left the winning ticket in an old handbag.

The winner, who wishes to remain anonymous said that upon reading an article about a nationwide appeal looking for the winner, she suddenly remembered buying a ticket for the draw but said she never imagined it could be the winning ticket.

“When I scanned the ticket on my phone and saw the message pop up confirming my win, I was in disbelief. I set the ticket and the phone aside out of pure shock, but after a few hours, I finally composed myself to check again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming,” she said.

She said the winning ticket purchased at the Friars Road Post Office in Turners Cross had been left in an old handbag since the draw after she received a new bag as a Christmas present.

“And to think the thing that could have cost me €100,000 was receiving a lovely new handbag for Christmas,” she said.

She said she cannot imagine how she would feel if she found the ticket after the prize claims deadline and missed out on her winnings.

I won’t dwell on what could have been because I now have a cheque for €100,000 which will come in incredibly handy over the coming months.

"We’ll be able to pay off what’s left of our mortgage and a couple of bills."

“As a family, we have agreed that we deserve to splurge on ourselves a little bit, so we’ll definitely be upgrading the car over the next couple of weeks, it’s incredibly exciting for us.” 

The Cork woman travelled to Dublin to collect the €100,000 prize as part of National Lottery's Christmas Millionaire Raffle with just days remaining before the prize claim deadline on March 30.

A National Lottery spokesperson reminded all players of the importance of checking tickets to ensure that all prizes, big and small are claimed.

“Following a nationwide media awareness campaign for this particular Millionaire Raffle prize, we were absolutely over the moon to finally get the call from this player in Cork to confirm the win just before the prize claim deadline,” the spokesperson said.

With tens of thousands of prize winners in our main draws every single week, it is vital that all of our players make sure to check their tickets after every draw to ensure they do not miss out on any prizes.

“The most common hiding places we see for players storing lottery tickets are in their cars, in jeans pockets and in this case, in old handbags. 

"When purchased, lottery tickets should be treated as a bearer instrument because ‘It Could Be You’ and the ticket may be worth a life-changing amount of money.”