It may have taken a £1million lottery jackpot to bring little baby Ethel into the world but new mum Rebecca Brown says her daughter is "priceless".
The 39-year-old used her share of the family's winnings to fund IVF treatment after being told by doctors to have children sooner rather than later.
The advice came as the Queen's Medical Centre nurse was diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells of the cervix in 2018, leading to the possible need for a hysterectomy.
After two rounds of IVF to the tune of £12,000, made financially possible due to her winnings, the new Eastwood mum gave birth last Friday (January 24).
"It's been manic and full on, that's for sure," Rebecca said, "When it happened, I sort of ended up on Saturday morning in a bit of the daze, because I couldn't believe that she was my baby and I thought I was dreaming.
"I thought it was a dream I was going to wake up from. We had a bit of a moment, behind the curtain at the hospital."
Rebecca scooped her share of £1 million back in August 2016 as part of a family syndicate with dad David, 64, mum Yvonne, 62, and sister Julie, 36. The four divided their windfall evenly.
Since then the family claim they've been living their normal lives and aside from jointly buying a holiday home at Lincolnshire's Tattershall Lakes Country Park, as well as a four-person Surrey bike they festively decorate and use to distribute sweets over Christmas, there have been no extravagant outgoings.
But Ethel is, of course, the most precious.
Recalling the moment she knew the IVF treatment had been a success, Rebecca said: "The first thing I did was I Facetimed my sister and said 'morning Auntie Julie' - and she went in to tell my mum and dad that it was a success.
"Then I cried a little bit - I never really thought that we'd get to this stage."
Going it alone Rebecca required a sperm donor as part of her IVF treatment saying she was happy with any match.
"I wanted someone of average height - so I was quite broad and I was matched quite quickly," she said.
Born weighing seven pounds and 10 ounces, Ethel was given her name for a very sweet reason.
Rebecca she said: "I like old-fashioned names.
"Ethel was a name I really liked, but I also had a patient called Ethel, who was a really cute sweet old lady.
"This was a long, long, time ago but she's always stuck with me."
The jackpot winner said her new baby would still probably have been born without the lottery win, but she would have needed contributions from her parents.
She said: "Ethel would probably be here, but not funded by myself.
"So, Ethel would probably be here on contributions from mum, dad, sister - they would have helped me out.
"I would have gone through it because they would have helped, they would have helped me and the they knew how important it was for me."
Rebecca and her family still continue to enter the same lottery draw with the same numbers but hope someone else will win the jackpot.
She said: "We still do it - dad puts the numbers on every week for us in Asda.
"We've had a couple of wins, but I'm hoping that someone else wins now and then they can get to enjoy what we have."
Dr Abraham Francis, of CARE Fertility, who made Rebecca's IVF possible, said: "We are delighted to hear of the safe arrival of Rebecca's much-wanted baby.
"A little bit of science and some lottery luck is a magical combination."
Rebecca added: "She is priceless but she's worth every penny."
