The National Lottery has responded after a teenage student lost out on a £182m jackpot because of a failed payment.
Rachel Kennedy, 19, is studying business at Brighton University and matched all seven EuroMillions numbers in February.
Unfortunately for her and 21-year-old boyfriend Liam McCrohan the payment hadn’t been made for the ticket, because she didn’t have enough cash in her bank account to pay the £2.50 charge.
Camelot, which has run the state-franchised lottery since 1994, sent the Hertfordshire couple a “good luck” message for future draws this week.
A spokesman for the company said: “We’re aware of Rachel’s story and hope she gets in early to buy a ticket for the next big draw.”
He added the organisation wished her “the best of luck in future draws” before Saturday’s £20m Lotto jackpot was won.
Rachel and Liam had played their numbers – 6, 12, 22, 29, 33, 6 and 11 – for five weeks before they came up on the February 26 draw.
She checked her National Lottery account and saw “winning match” displayed.
She told the Sun : “I called my boyfriend Liam and my mum into the room and they couldn’t believe it either so I was like, ‘oh my god I need to call them’.
“I called the number thinking that I had won £182million and they said ‘yeah you’ve got the right numbers but you didn’t have the funds in your account for the payment of the ticket so it didn’t actually go through’.
“I was on top of the world when I thought I had won but when I found out I hadn’t, Liam was actually more upset than I was.”
Economics student Liam said: “(Rachel) was quite relaxed about it but I had kind of spent it in my head already. I was absolutely heartbroken when we heard the man on the phone say we hadn’t actually bought the ticket.
“I was already picturing our dream house and the dream car, I think I was getting a bit carried away to be fair.”