A lucky Irish woman has vowed to share her €500,000 Lotto winnings with her family after she scooped up the EuroMillions Plus top prize earlier this month.
The Kilkenny woman has promised that she will use the life-changing win to help her adult children buy a home but also said she will treat herself to a holiday.
She was passing through Co Carlow last week when she decided to stop off at a local garage and try her luck by buying a EuroMillions ticket.
The winning ticket which bagged the delighted mother a cool half million euro was purchased at O'Toole’s service station in Tullow town.
The generous mother said: “It’s one of my little traditions, I’ll always buy a lottery ticket when I’m out of town but this is just unbelievable.
"The morning after the draw, I heard that the winning ticket was sold in Carlow and I didn’t twig that it could be me.
"It wasn’t until I checked my numbers later that evening and realised that I’d only gone and bought the winning ticket in Carlow!”
So far in 2019, there have been 28 winners of the €500,000 EuroMillion Plus top prize in Ireland.
This year could be a record breaking year for top prizes won in the EuroMillions Plus game.
2017 currently holds the record of 31 winners of the €500,000 top prize in Ireland.
While the dedicated Kilkenny mother says that she plans to use her new found fortune to help her kids get on the property ladder she also hinted that she will enjoy her win with a nice sun holiday and some home renovations.
She said: “You never know how you are going to react when you win a prize like that but the very first thought that came into my head was that I would be able to help my children.
"It is every mother’s dream to be able to help out your children as they fly the nest and now, this is something I will be able to do.
"I’m going to meet with my bank manager in the next few days and get him to write up a cheque for each of them and it’ll set them up very nicely for the future."
She added: “It won’t be all about the family though! We’re going to have to enjoy the win ourselves and we’re looking at a nice sun holiday before Christmas to get away from this dreary weather!
"After that, we might look at getting some home improvements done with a new kitchen if we have any money left over.”
