CARLEY SCANLAN IT was perhaps the biggest saving ever made on a visit to the supermarket. A lottery ticket bought with money saved from a two-for-one deal on a humble bottle of juice turned into a £2.5m jackpot.
Kerri Cartwright, 28, a single parent from Port Glasgow, bought the Lucky Dip ticket at her local Tesco store after saving money on the buy-one-get-one- free offer on blackcurrant and orange juice for her three-year-old daughter, Stephani.
Yesterday, the student, who moved to Scotland from England three-and-a-half years ago, was toasting her windfall with champagne.
Ms Cartwright, originally from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, is currently studying for an HNC in administration and IT at James Watt College, and also works part-time at a golf club.
Flanked by her delighted sister Joy, 30, and mother Liz, 55, at a presentation of the £2,543,691 prize, she said: "I had promised to get Stephani some blackcurrant and orange juice so I went to Tesco to buy them. The juice was on a buy-one-get-one-free' offer, so with the money saved I decided to buy a ticket."
She added: "I thought at first I had four numbers, then five and I was really pleased. I asked my friend to check for me. She had my mobile and the ticket and she said, you're playing a joke on me, aren't you? You have all six!' "I packed my bag and sort of ran straight to my mum!"
Ms Cartwright, who works part-time shifts at Port Glasgow Golf Club to support her daughter, said she had dreamed about a lottery win a week before and has now deferred her studies.
She said the financial freedom would make her life much easier and already has plans for some of her winnings: "I won't have to worry about things again. I'm planing to take all the family away on holiday to Disney World. We have always wanted to go.
"I'm also going to buy two cars. One will be a sensible family car and the other will be a sports car just for me!"
Sister Joy Cartwright said: "Everyone was stunned. We've got quite a large extended family and word went round like wildfire.
"We just had a really good time last night.
"We haven't really thought about the amount of money, we just keep on thinking that her numbers have come up."
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