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Lottery winner to buy new car for best friend

Festival loving Sharin McCourt (42) from Derry celebrated with her best friend, also called Sharon, after she scooped a life-changing £250,000 on a National Lottery scratchcard. Sharin bought two Blue & Green Scratchcards from the National Lottery GameStore when shopping for some groceries at her local Mace. It wasn’t until she got home and unpacked her items that she remembered about the scratchcards so began to scratch them. “The first one wasn’t a winner,” she said. “But the second one, well that revealed three amounts of £250,000!” Sharin is an avid festival goer so it’ll be VIP all the way to her favourite festivals this year. She also plans to buy her life-long friend, Sharon, a new car and new wellington boots to keep their feet dry.
Festival loving Sharin McCourt (42) from Derry celebrated with her best friend, also called Sharon, after she scooped a life-changing £250,000 on a National Lottery scratchcard. Sharin bought two Blue & Green Scratchcards from the National Lott Festival loving Sharin McCourt (42) from Derry celebrated with her best friend, also called Sharon, after she scooped a life-changing £250,000 on a National Lottery scratchcard. Sharin bought two Blue & Green Scratchcards from the National Lottery GameStore when shopping for some groceries at her local Mace. It wasn’t until she got home and unpacked her items that she remembered about the scratchcards so began to scratch them. “The first one wasn’t a winner,” she said. “But the second one, well that revealed three amounts of £250,000!” Sharin is an avid festival goer so it’ll be VIP all the way to her favourite festivals this year. She also plans to buy her life-long friend, Sharon, a new car and new wellington boots to keep their feet dry.
By Seamus McKinney

A Derry woman who won £250,000 on a UK National Lottery scratch card intends buying her best friend a new car to travel to festivals in.

The identity of the mystery winner of the prize was revealed yesterday almost a week after news of her lucky win.

Sharin McCourt (42) bought the winning card at Myra’s supermarket on Derry’s Culmore Road on what turned out to be a very lucky whim.

The lucky winner said: “I wanted to make a nice meal for myself and my best friend, also called Sharon, so we went down to the shop to buy some bits and pieces. When I went to pay for my items I had a bit of money left over so I decided to buy two scratchcards, on a whim. Then we just headed home and I started to prepare dinner.”

After unpacking her goods, she scratched the two cards, the second of which was worth a quarter of a million pounds.

“My reaction was total disbelief. I didn’t shout or cheer I just had a look of total bewilderment on my face. Even now I find it hard to comprehend.”

The Derry woman said she hasn’t made any big plans yet.

“I’m an avid festival goer so it’s be VIP all the way to my favourite festivals this year. I also plan to buy my life-long friend, Sharon, a new car as the one we travel to the festivals in has had more hits than Abba. I’ll also get us some brand new Wellington boots to keep our feet dry,” she said.