Someone in the UK won and lost £1,000,000 on EuroMillions without even knowing

A EuroMillions player bought a ticket, won a million, and then lost it because they never took their winnings.

In a cautionary tale for all of us if we win a multimillion pound lottery jackpot, they left it too late to claim their cash and now it will be given to charity instead.

It’s a scenario almost as bad as the man who lost millions of pounds of Bitcoin at the bottom of a landfill – and coincidentally it happened just down the road, so the almost-millionaires might even meet in the pub to commiserate.

The winning ticket was bought in in Rhondda Cynon Taf, also near Cardiff in South Wales.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ advisor at The National Lottery, said: ‘Unfortunately, I can confirm that the ticket-holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this substantial amount of money.

‘However, the money will now add to the £30m raised each week for National Lottery-funded projects.’

If this was us, we’d rather just never know – and presumably this person didn’t, or they would have said something.

But if it was you and you’re only just realising, this list of local projects to have benefitted from lottery funds may soften the blow (or perhaps not):

Projects in Rhondda Cynon Taf helped by National Lottery funding

• Rhondda Hearing Impaired Support Group was awarded a £18,025 grant in May 2024 to purchase accessibility equipment and facilitate combined day trips for members of hard of hearing groups within the county.
• Striking Attitudes Limited was awarded £15,230 in March 2024 to offer social cohesion through creative experiences for older people experiencing loneliness and isolation.
• Shine was awarded £350,000 in September 2023 for their Ages & Stages project to provide age specific support, advice and information for individuals affected by Spina bifida and Hydrocephalus in Wales.

Whoever bought this ticket lost out, but there are still three big ticket prizes from draws in August and September waiting to be claimed, summing up to £2,350,000.

Two people in London are sleeping on prizes of a million each, one in Bromley and one in Lambeth (Lotto and EuroMillions respectively).

Meanwhile, a Lotto HotPicks player in Birmingham just has to say the word to get their hands on £350,000.

Players have 180 days, which is around six months, from the date of the draw to claim their winnings.

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