A student who thought she won a life-changing £182million on EuroMillions was devastated to learn she wouldn’t receive a penny because the direct debit for the ticket had not left her account. Rachel Kennedy, then just 19, had a regular combination of numbers – 6, 12, 22, 29, 33, 6 and 11 – and played this sequence on EuroMillions for five weeks, using a direct debit.
To Rachel’s joy, all the numbers came up for the National Lottery draw and “winning match” popped up on her online account in February 2021.
But a National Lottery call handler gave Rachel the stomach-churning news she and her then boyfriend Liam McCrohan hadn’t bought a ticket because they didn’t have enough money in their account for the direct debit to continue.
The ticket cost just £2.50, and would have changed Rachel and Liam’s lives. Liam had already started spending the cash in his head – on a nice motor and swanky home, the Mirror reports.
Speaking at the time in February 2021, Rachel, from Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, said: “I called my boyfriend Liam and my mum into the room and they couldn’t believe it either so I was like, ‘oh my God I need to call them’.
“I called the number thinking that I had won £182million and they said ‘yeah you’ve got the right numbers but you didn’t have the funds in your account for the payment of the ticket so it didn’t actually go through’.
“I was on top of the world when I thought I had won but when I found out I hadn’t, Liam was actually more upset than I was.”
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Speaking to The Sun, Liam said: “(Rachel) was quite relaxed about it but I had kind of spent it in my head already. I was absolutely heartbroken when we heard the man on the phone say we hadn’t actually bought the ticket.
“I was already picturing our dream house and the dream car, I think I was getting a bit carried away to be fair.”
A spokesperson for Camelot said: “We’re aware of Rachel’s story and hope she gets in early to buy a ticket for the next big draw.”
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