I was a EuroMillions winner for 10 minutes…then my world fell apart

An unhappy grandmother told how she was a EuroMillions winner for just ten minutes – before it all fell apart.

Margaret De Micheli, 72, bought a ticket for the £34million jackpot on March 29 – but only got to check if she had won last week.

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She went to her local post office to check the ticket – and was amazed when a shopkeeper handed her a note saying she’d won.

The stunned Margaret was told to go to nearby Tesco to double-check the numbers before calling the lottery.

The granny rushed across the road to the nearby supermarket in Swiss Cottage, north London, where eager staff quickly checked her numbers.

But her retirement hopes for her hard-working husband, 78, collapsed moments later.

The Tesco employee said her ticket did not have the winning numbers. She called the National Lottery, who confirmed the devastating news.

Margaret told The Sun: “I was disappointed. I’ve never had one of these eligible tickets before – and I’ve been doing the lottery since it started.

“I was quite surprised when I got this claim ticket – I didn’t know what to do with it.

“They said go to Tesco. And when I went there, it came out as a non-winner.

“I thought it was because I had two lines on my EuroMillions ticket.

“I was pretty confident that the line I won on was the one I made for my grandson – it’s his date of birth.

“I called the lottery line and spoke to a lady and she checked all the numbers on the ticket. And they didn’t count.

“I was amazed. I asked why I got the claim ticket and she said the person in front of me [is probably who the claim slip was meant for].

“It was a bit disappointing and I was quite disappointed.”

Margaret said she didn’t think she had won millions, just enough to retire her beloved husband.

“When I got the ticket I wasn’t thinking about millions, maybe £25,000 or something.

“I just wanted enough to call my husband and tell him to come home so he can retire from work.

Have YOU missed millions thanks to a mix up of lottery tickets – email jemma.carr@thesun.co.uk

“He’s a traffic cop and it’s a thankless job – he turns 79 this year. He leaves at 5:15 a.m. and comes home around 4:45 p.m.

“I only think of him because he is such a wonderful person. He is my soul mate.

“We’ve been married for 54 years and I couldn’t face my life without him and I just want him to be able to retire.

“That’s very good [the job] keeps him busy with his brain but at the same time he is physically tired.

“He should have retired at 65 but we just can’t afford it because where we live has the utilities – we’re tenant farmers but that doesn’t mean we’re millionaires.”

Margaret worries that the rightful lottery winner will mistakenly believe she hasn’t won.

“After that, I just thought about the person who had the ticket and they didn’t know and they thought they didn’t have anything,” she added.

She urged everyone to check their numbers – especially if they bought their ticket in the Swiss Cottage area.

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