'My heart properly stopped for a moment'

The National Lottery winners’ room was the scene of an incredible family reunion on Friday as a large Westmeath family syndicate gathered in Dublin city to claim a massive €500,000 EuroMillions Plus prize which they won on Friday, May 17.

This lucky winners who wish to remain anonymous bought their EuroMillions ticket in Marie’s Moate store on Church Street in Moate.

After receiving their cheque worth €500,000 from National Lottery officials, one of the winning syndicate members described the exact moment that the family realised they had hit the top prize in the EuroMillions Plus game.

“The morning after the draw, I saw a post on Facebook which announced the win in the local shop. My heart properly stopped for a moment, knowing that there was a very big chance that the winning ticket was in my handbag! I said to my mother that it was definitely us and we just sat in the house for hours before we even checked the ticket! It was just a magical feeling when we all finally plucked up the courage to check it – it was just brilliant,” she said.

The Westmeath family who have been playing EuroMillions as a syndicate for nearly 10 years have put any major spending sprees on hold and instead they plan to continue their celebrations with a well-earned family holiday in the sun:

“We’ve been walking on air for the past week but we’re still trying to get our heads around the fact that we’ll be sharing a half million between us. We’ve thought very little about our actual plans for the money but we’re determined to enjoy the celebrations for the time being. We’re all going on a nice holiday very soon so we’ll take a little bit of time out before we make any big decisions for the money,”added the syndicate member."