Honour in Bingo - Why can't more of us be that way?
A 38-year-old cleaner from South Lanarkshire has won what bingo bosses claim is the game's biggest ever win. Mother-of-four Soraya Lowell, from Hamilton, scooped just under £1.2m at the Club 3000 bingo hall in Coatbridge. National Bingo Game bosses said they believed Mrs Lowell's win on Sunday could be the biggest in the world. She has pledged to give half of her winnings to her 68-year-old neighbour and bingo companion, Agnes O'Neill, who was there when she hit the jackpot. Mrs Lowell said: "We always share whatever either of us wins and this time will be no different."
Mrs O' Neill added: "I have had a rough time the last three years - I have been very ill and Soraya has cared for me which meant my husband did not have to retire early. "She has been wonderful to me. "What she has done for me is absolutely something else."
Mrs Lowell won the National Bingo Game and its Platinum Jackpot, netting £1,167,795. Her win beats that of Christine Bradfield, from Merthyr Tydfil, who won £1.1m in January. The bingo hall erupted when Mrs Lowell called house on the last number, 90. Players jumped up and down cheering and shouting and the party continued through the night, as Mrs Lowell celebrated at her home with family and neighbours until 6am. Despite her win, Mrs Lowell has vowed to return to work. She said: "It just won't sink in yet. "I haven't slept at all, but I will be back at work on Tuesday as usual. "I clean offices until 1.30am and I don't intend to give up my job. "I like the girls I work with, and they have already told me not to pack it in."
'Worth waiting for'
Mrs Lowell said her husband Frankie did not believe her when she telephoned him to break the news of her win. "He handed the phone to our eldest daughter, who heard the shouting in the background and told him I was telling the truth," she added. Mrs Lowell, who has been a member at the club since it opened 16 months ago, first went to bingo as a young child with her grandmother. "This is my first ever win and it was worth waiting for," she said. She added that her three daughters, aged 13, 15 and 21, and her 19-year-old son had already offered to help her spend her winnings. "They have all put in wee orders already," she said. "The two oldest want convertibles and don't even have licences yet."
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