A couple from Sittingbourne have won £300,000 on an Instant Win game from The National Lottery.

But lucky winners Linda Priston, 56, and her husband Stewart, 55, say they have no plans for early retirement.

The couple, who have been married for 34 years and worked throughout the pandemic as key-workers, both returned to their jobs after learning of their win.

Linda said: "We don’t plan to give up working just yet. I’ve been with the NHS for more than 17 years while Stewart has been an HGV driver since he was 21.

"We like what we do and we’re good at our respective jobs. But we may well cut down on the overtime a bit.”

Their winning adventure began when Linda sat down after a "very average day-off" doing household chores and logged onto her online National Lottery account.

But after treating herself to a Luxury Lines Instant Win Game her day suddenly became anything but average when she discovered she had won the life-changing amount of cash.

She said: “Stewart was on a night-shift so as I was home alone for another evening I decided to entertain myself with a little play on an online Instant Win Game.

"When the £300k prize appeared on my screen, quickly followed by the claim telephone number, I was sure there must be a mistake. So I put my iPad down, walked away and made myself a cup of tea instead!”

With brew in hand and her nerves calmed, Linda logged back into her account and although still convinced it was a mistake, this time she decided she’d better call the claim line "just in case" it was right.

She said: "It turned out it was right and they confirmed I had just won £300k.

"At that point I took a photo of the screen with the win amount and sent it to Stewart. Then I poured myself a very big glass of wine!

"I rang Stewart as well but I don’t think he really believed me until he came home at 1am and could see it on the screen for himself.

“We kept it our secret for three days and didn’t tell another soul - except our two sons - until we went to our local, the Three Hats, on Saturday for a drink and shared the news with the landlady and a few of our closest friends.

"It was a lovely moment. Everyone was over the moon and said how delighted they were to see a local couple win, especially a couple who work as hard as we do!”

She added: “While we won’t be giving up work any time soon, we will be taking time off in 2022 to mark our 35th wedding anniversary with a once-in-a-lifetime holiday to see the Northern Lights.

"It’s something we’ve always dreamt of doing. Now we can do it without having to think twice about the cost. Now that truly is a dream!”

Aside from the dream holiday, Linda and Stewart are also looking forward to paying off the rest of their mortgage and doing some work on the house.

Linda said: "We have no plans to move house but we will finally tick off some of the renovations we have wanted to do but never had the spare cash to cover before.

"It’s an amazing feeling, knowing, that that from now on, our wages are ours to spend and save as we choose without the added pressure of having to meet the mortgage payments.”

The National Lottery Luxury Lines Instant Win Game is available to play at national-lottery.co.uk and offers a 1 in 2.6 overall chance of winning a prize. The game costs £3 and prizes range from £3 up to the top prize of £300,000.

By playing any National Lottery game, players generate an average of £36million each week for National Lottery-funded projects. This money helps support everything from local charities to helping athletes win Olympic and Paralympic gold medals.

To date, more than £43billion has been raised and distributed to National Lottery good causes through more than 635,000 individual grants.

More than £1.2billion is being used by charities and organisations affected by the coronavirus outbreak which includes £600million from the National Lottery Community Fund.

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