(Picture: North News)

Two friends who have previously shared £25 lottery wins are now sharing a larger pot – with a win of £15,342,900.

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Lorraine Smith said that there was no chance she wouldn’t share the win with her best friend Paula Barraclough – and both say the win ‘won’t change’ their friendship.

The pair from Sunderland, who call each other Polly and Lolly, have previously put £25 wins towards a joint holiday fund.

This time, instead of going towards a trip to the Greek islands, the mammoth win will allow the friends of 17 years standing to fly first class to Las Vegas.


North News

Mrs Smith, 54, who is widowed with a son aged 23, bought the winning ticket on the way to work as a cook at a care home on Saturday morning.



She was sheltering in a shop at 6.30am, waiting for a bus when she found a £2 coin in her purse and bought a Lucky Dip.

That evening she and her son, who is a mechanic, scraped together enough money for a Chinese takeaway as she said they were both ‘skint’ waiting for payday.

The next morning she checked the numbers on an app, and felt like she was hallucinating when all six numbers matched.

At a news conference in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, Miss Barraclough, who is single, 45, smiled as she recalled: ‘I said to Lorraine, ‘You’d better be ringing to tell me that we have won the lottery’.

North News

‘She said ‘yes’. I knew in her tone of voice it must be true.’

Mrs Smith still went to work and did not claim the prize until 2pm, explaining: ‘I was busy making dinner.’

The friends plan to ‘go wild’ on a shopping spree, with Miss Barraclough looking for Chanel sunglasses and admitting she has an eye for handbags.

The cafe worker lives with her parents and will now buy a house in Sunderland.

Mrs Smith said she had no plans to move but will buy new windows for her home and a new frying pan.

Mrs Smith said: ‘I would hate to think anything will change between us because of money – if it did I would give it back.’

Neither has any plans to immediately give up work but they may reduce their hours.