Teacher Lydia Barber has gone right to the top of the class after shattering odds of 5,000,000/1 to win £250,000 at Betfred.
The 65-year-old from London won the jackpot from just a 5p stake on Betfred’s Nifty 50 numbers game. But if it hadn’t been for Betfred manager Gillian Caines, Lydia could have missed out entirely on her life-changing win.
Gillian, who runs the shop in Croydon, ended up chasing Lydia down the street, urging her to come back inside to check her numbers as she was convinced she’d won big. It was only the second time mother-of-one Lydia had been in the Betfred shop, and she only opted for the Nifty50 because that’s what her friend had done seconds earlier.
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Lydia went for different numbers – namely 1, 2, 11, 12, 14, 25, 33 and 50 – than her shopping pal Julian. A week later, on Saturday morning, she returned to Betfred to have another go on the Nifty 50, unaware that she’d already won.
She explained: “I didn’t quite understand the bet so I didn’t want to mither the staff, including Gillian who was so busy. So, I just put another bet on and set off back home. A few minutes later, I was halfway down the street and Gillian was tapping me on the shoulder telling me I should come back in because I was the big winner.
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“I owe Gillian so much. She’s a real hero. I thought she was pranking me at first, but she smiled which made me think she wasn’t making it up so I went back into Betfred with her. She explained I had to find my ticket from last week, which I did in my handbag – and then it was checked and I found out I’d won a quarter of a million pounds.
“It really is difficult to believe, especially as it’s only my second time in the shop – and me and my husband Charles hardly ever gamble.”
Charles added: “We’re going to go wild tonight! Maybe we’ll have a glass or even a bottle of prosecco – or possibly we can afford champagne now. She was basically copying Julian’s bet but using different numbers. We just cannot thank Betfred enough… it’s brilliant.”
Lydia continued: “We invested in a little house in Tuscany and will be using some of the money to pay for renovations. We also love Scotland and we have been spending a lot of time there as we just love the scenery and the people are so friendly, so we may even think about getting a place up there too.
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“It’s so much money, I might even be able to retire earlier from my job. I’m a big spender but Charles will keep an eye on it. I picked the numbers totally at random, and it only took me a couple of minutes – and now our life has changed forever.”
Store manager Gillian, a 51-year-old mother-of-six, was the hero of the hour, racing out of the shop to tell Lydia she may have a jackpot ticket, she said: “I had it in the back of my mind that the customer we were all looking out for had blonde hair,” she said. “When she came to the counter to place a similar bet on Saturday morning, it crossed my mind that it was her.
“I checked with my colleagues and by the time we convinced ourselves it was her, she’d left, so I chased after her for about 200 yards. I told her she ought to come back to the shop, because she might have won a lot of money. When we checked her ticket we were all so happy for her. She must have thought I was some kind of mad woman, chasing after her.”
Betfred boss Fred Done said he was “totally chuffed to bits” that six of Lydia’s eight numbers were drawn to land the Nifty 50 jackpot.
He said: “When we started this game it was aimed at people winning big from small stakes – and that’s exactly what Lydia has done. I reckon I’m the only bookie around where you can win so much from just a 5p unit stake. It’s a tremendous win for Lydia, and I’m confident she and her husband Charles will spend their windfall wisely.
“As for Gillian, she’s a true Betfred hero. She’s done just what we would expect from one of our great and loyal employees, so I want to say a big thank you to this wonderful shop manager who clearly hasn’t lost her athletic ability!”
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