Hamilton’s newest millionaire has picked up her cheque for $50 million from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Kathryn Jones received the cheque for money she won in a Nov. 30 Lotto Max draw. It was a prize she didn’t know she’d won until the OLG contacted her just before the expiry date. She purchased the ticket at a Shoppers Drug Mart on Dundas Street in Cambridge, but lost it.

“We’ve very excited for the new opportunities that this windfall affords ourselves and our family,” Jones said. “I’m looking forward to the whole new facet of my life that has been opened up because OLG took initiative to find me.”

OLG president Rod Phillips presented the cheque during the photo op. The prize was unclaimed for nearly a year before an investigation into another prize claim led them to Jones.

The prize was held for 30 days and publicized because Jones’s sister owns an Ottawa retail outlet where lottery tickets are sold.

Jones and her husband Richard are both 54-year-old engineers. They have two university-aged children.

Jones has officially retired, but her husband is pondering staying on at work in some capacity.

They want to travel.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand,” she said. “The other side of the world was never on the radar and now it’s a very real option.”