A TEENAGER who was nagged by his mother in to finally tidying up his bedroom struck gold by finding a lost lottery ticket – worth £53,000.
Ryan Kitching had resisted his mother’s increasingly desperate attempts to get him to clean up the mess in his room.
But when he finally gave in and started shifting through the junk, Ryan, 19, spotted a ticket from the February 8 draw.
Instead of tossing it in a bin bag with the rest of the rubbish, he had the ticket checked out a discovered it had five winning numbers and a bonus ball.
A shocked Ryan – who does two jobs to make ends meet – discovered he was richer to the tune of £52,981.
He plans to reward his long-suffering mum and dad, Susan and Raymond, from Penicuik, Midlothian, by arranging for them to go on holiday.
He posted on his Facebook page: “Special thanks to my mum for putting up with me haha!
“Still in so much shock refuse to believe it until the cheque clears. Hope to see everyone soon out all weekend to celebrate!
Ryan said today: “I’m feeling brilliant, on top of the world. I was so close to throwing out the tickets away but then I just had a gut feeling about it.
“I had just got back from the gym and my mum had been asking me to tidy my room. I found the tickets and I thought: ‘I’m taking my mum shopping anyway, I’ll get them checked, it will do no harm.’
“I had checked all of the other tickets, but I must have just forgotten about that one.”
Camelot
Ryan bought the ticket from Tesco in Edinburgh Road, Penicuick, where he does one of his jobs.
He left the tickets at the store’s kiosk to get checked, and a friend shouted after him saying he had ‘won big.’
“I had to phone up Camelot and the woman was asking me lots of questions and I just wanted her to get to the point. It just felt like it was taking an eternity.
“When I gave her the last number of the serial code, she said I had won £52,981. I just couldn’t believe it.”
He added: “My advice would be get your tickets checked as soon as you can.
“I’m definitely going to continue playing the lottery and I’m hoping to use those numbers from now on.”
He added: “The only number that let me down was seven, and that’s supposed to be my lucky number.”
Speaking after she finished her shift in Tesco, Ryan’s mum Susan said she was delighted with her son’s win.
“We’re over the moon for Ryan. It couldn’t have happened at a better time for him. It’s great to know that it’ll set him up for the future and that he won’t have to worry about money for a while.
“We want him to invest most of it but he’s very good with money so he shouldn’t have a problem with putting it away.”
Susan said she and her husband have been playing the lotto since it first began.
“We’ve bought two lines every week since it began and the most we’ve ever won was £80. Even that was a great day but now this is just a million times better.”
The mother of two said that she hopes to book a family holiday to the States as Ryan has promised them a trip with his winnings.
“We want to go back to Florida or California. We’ll bring the two boys with us though, it wouldn’t be the same without them.
“Ryan’s a great boy, we’ve never had any problems with him. He’s very kind and i’ve had so many people from my work saying it couldn’t have happened to a nicer boy.”
“We’ve never been a particularly lucky family so this is definitely the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”
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