Losing a winning ticket is every Lottery player’s worst nightmare.

But when the jackpot is £113million – the biggest payout ever in Britain – the despair is hard to imagine.

Yet one woman claims she knows exactly how it feels, after a catastrophic blunder by her husband.

The pensioner says she gave him her ticket for safe-keeping before the EuroMillions draw – and he threw it away by mistake.

‘I checked my notepad where I write down my lottery numbers every week after I read in the paper that the winning ticket was bought in Coventry,’ she said.

‘I couldn’t believe it when I realised that my numbers matched the winning ones.

‘I told my husband to get the ticket out and double check. But that’s when he told me that he’d binned it.’

Speculation about the identity of the ticket holder has been centred on the West Midlands since the draw 12 days ago.

The pensioner, who wants to remain anonymous, said: ‘I play every week. I play the lottery, the EuroMillions and the Thunderball but my husband takes the ticket off me and I don’t see it again.

‘That’s why I always write my numbers down. I went down to the newsagent and showed him my pad. He said, “My God! You’re a winner!” but I said, “I’m not a winner – the ticket has been binned”.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1321830/Euromillions-pensioner-claims-won-lottery-jackpot-husband-binned-ticket.html#ixzz12ryVHzSE

Don't believe it.

My version is that there was no unique winner that week and the Lottery people decided to publicise their sales by inventing one.

Now they have given a few quid to this lady to supplement her pension and build on the story.

Think how much publicity the EuroMillions are getting. And all the watchers of Coronation Street / Eastenders who believe it and will go out next week and spend extra on their tickets.

I always write the numbers down, in a little notebook after the draw, and then "lose" the ticket.

According to this evening's news on the Beeb the prize has been claimed and the money paid out. The winner is deciding whether to go public or not. I wouldn't. Just imagine the thousands of hangers-on you'd accumulate in milliseconds.

According to this evening's news on the Beeb the prize has been claimed and the money paid out. The winner is deciding whether to go public or not. I wouldn't. Just imagine the thousands of hangers-on you'd accumulate in milliseconds.

With big wins the Lottery organisers usually provide a secretarial and accountancy service to filter all the begging letters, advise on investments, etc.

Doesn't stop half the winners being bankrupt within five years though.

(No reference for that, but it is definitely a fairly frequent feature in a certain class of rag / sorry, newspaper).