A 20-strong syndicate dubbed the Lottery Ladies is celebrating a £1million win.
The pals, aged 40-75, have played the same 20 lines every Saturday since the late 1990s.
Their organiser Shelley Samuels texted to tell them: “Make sure you are sitting down – we’ve won £1,000,000.”
Members then met on Zoom to toast their good luck, as they couldn't gather in person as a group due to coronavirus restrictions.
Shelley said: “Some told me they had literally just got off the phone to family members cancelling Christmas when they received my text.
“No sum can ease the heart-ache of not being with loved ones at Christmas.
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“But one Lottery Lady sum-med it up best when she said the win was just the lift we needed going into 2021 after such a harrowing year.”
The Hertfordshire syndicate members had previously only won a few modest sums since meeting through a school.
But following the draw on December 19 Shelley received an online message asking her to “call Camelot”.
She explained: “I Googled the telephone number to check it really was Camelot.
“While I was pottering around in the kitchen tidying up after lunch, I decided to call, not for one second imagining... we’d won £1 million.”
The Lottery Ladies’ WhatsApp group ‘went wild’ that night - on the day their home county of Hertfordshire was moved into Tier 4.
Fellow members Val Booth, Gill Gilbert, Sally Phin, Jacqui Montgomery,
Lynne Bennett, Kim Phillips, Karen Warby, Ali Maughan and Barbara Page celebrated online with Shelley.
Some of the group have already been planning how to spend their winnings.
Many want to help out family members following a difficult year while home improvements are also high on the agenda.
One of the Ladies is treating herself to a new dining table, while others are looking at cars and garden furniture.
The winning numbers for the December 19 Lotto draw were 4, 10, 14, 21, 27, 28 and the bonus ball was 23.
