A father and daughter from Whittlesey are celebrating a life-changing Lotto win after picking up more than £729,026.
Lorraine Daniels is already planning to give back money raised for her by the community for her daughter Lotus who had major surgery to stop seizures she had suffered since a baby.
Little Lotus, six, cannot talk, has severe learning difficulties, no awareness of danger and surgery has left her with severe weakness of her left leg.
She has been seizure-free for 18 months, six months of which have been medication free.
Last year, the community of Whittlesey pulled together to raise money for mum Lorraine to help buy a special bed costing £3,500 for Lotus so she could sleep safely at night.
Lorraine has to sleep next to Lotus for fear she will fall out of bed and be unable to alert her mum which prompted friends Mandy Wilson and Miriam Palmer to ask for help in raising money for the special bed.
With the help elp of Facebook group Whittlesey Discussion, led by Colin Martin, money was raised for the family.
Now, Lorraine and her father have become the next in a line of lucky winners following the draw on Wednesday April 20.
A spokesman for the National Lottery said: “The duo are still reeling from the news but said they are already making plans to give back to the community that has helped the family so much in recent times.”
The winning numbers for the week were 1, 7, 9, 10, 12, 31 with a bonus ball of 28.
The win comes just two months after Gerry and Lisa Cannings from Peterborough scooped £32 million on the Lotto.
At just 17 days old Lotus was diagnosed with epilepsy and what started with one or two fits a day increased to 10 a day.
By the time she was three months old she was on three different epilepsy medications.
Eventually she was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy which meant no drugs would work to control the seizures.
At one point Lotus was having on average 50 seizures a day and at her worst 300 seizures in 24 hours.
For two years Lotus and her mum travelled between Peterborough Hospital and Addenbrooke’s undergoing various tests but after trying various medications still nothing worked.
At nearly four years old Lotus couldn’t walk, talk, hold a bottle to feed herself or play with toys.
She was a toddler stuck in the body and mind of a six month old.
By April 2014 Lotus’ seizures were out of control and she underwent surgery lasting almost ten hours.
After just five days she went home to recover and since then has learnt to walk, read, feed herself, play and has learnt some sign language.
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