Half a million pound lottery win for mystery Bedfordshire man

A mystery winner, known only as Mr D from Bedfordshire, has won the top prize on Thunderball - scooping a life-changing £500,000 in the draw on Wednesday, 3 March.

He now plans to buy a new home and take a holiday - when it is safe to do so.

The Bedfordshire local, who played a personal selection of random numbers via the National Lottery app has become one of eight million players that win each week on The National Lottery’s range of games. Interactive winners have the opportunity to release their name, remain anonymous or like this winner, release some details through partial publicity.

Camelot’s Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor at The National Lottery, said, “Huge congratulations to Mr D for winning this fantastic prize. After a few simple taps, he has banked half a million pounds and can look forward to buying a new home and going on holiday.”

In the current situation, The National Lottery is encouraging everyone to check their tickets online at national-lottery.co.uk or by downloading the National Lottery app, and to only buy or check their tickets in retail in line with government guidance.

Playing online via the website or app means that your ticket is checked, and you get an email notification if you win a prize. You can also scan your retail tickets on the National Lottery app to check if you’re a winner.

By playing any National Lottery game, players help to raise an average of £30million every week for National Lottery Good Causes across the UK.

This money helps support everything from local charities to helping our nation’s athletes win Olympic and Paralympic gold medals. To date, more than £42 billion has been raised and distributed to National Lottery Good Causes through more than 625,000 individual grants.

Thanks to National Lottery players, over £1 billion is being used by charities and organisations affected by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, which includes over £600 million in funding support from the National Lottery Community Fund which is being used to help groups best placed to support people and communities through the crisis.