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Mum Whose Winning Lottery Ticket Was Binned by Shopkeeper to Get £12m Jackpot
Published 01:17 12 Aug 2026 BST
Updated 19:43 11 Aug 2026 BST
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Mum Whose Winning Lottery Ticket Was Binned by Shopkeeper to Get £12m Jackpot
A mum whose winning lottery ticket was accidentally thrown in the bin by a shopkeeper has been told she can finally claim her £12 million jackpot. Kath Main, 46, from Pontypridd in South Wales, appealed to National Lottery operator Allwyn after the owner of a Londis in Abercynon binned her ticket when his scanner failed to register her numbers as a win, The Independent reports.
Ms Main’s mother, Fiona, had taken the ticket to the shop, where she was told it had not won — the machine ‘did not beep’ and nothing came up on screen. By the time Ms Main read that somebody in her area had won the 6 June jackpot with her lucky numbers — 8, 10, 26, 30, 35 and 42, a combination of family birthdays and ages — the ticket had already been thrown away.
Agonising wait over lottery ticket ends
Allwyn launched a 30-day investigation and has now concluded that Ms Main will be able to claim her win, so long as nobody else comes forward with the ticket by 3 December. The rugby club secretary previously said she ‘feels sick all the time’ waiting for the potential payout.
Should the money land, Ms Main has said she hopes to put some of it towards following the Lions on their tour of New Zealand. She may want to spend it more carefully than one National Lottery winner, who blew £80,000 of his winnings in a matter of weeks.
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