Coventry couple win Thunderball's top prize twice after a duplicated line

In October 2019 Gayle Say, a cleaner from Coventry, filled in several lines across three Thunderball tickets. Before leaving the shop she realised she had written one combination out twice. She thought about asking for one ticket to be cancelled, then decided against it.

That combination, 4, 7, 20, 23 and 27 with Thunderball 8, came up in a Tuesday draw later that month. Each copy won the £500,000 top prize, so she and her husband Philip, a retired builder, shared £1 million. A few smaller wins on other lines added a little more.

She found out by checking the numbers on her phone. She has described rushing inside with the tickets to tell Philip, then realising that a second ticket had won as well.

Gayle resigned from her cleaning job soon afterwards and retired once she had worked her notice. The couple planned to help their family with house deposits and rent.

Sources

• SWNS: Cleaner won two £500,000 Thunderball jackpots in the same draw by mistake (swns.com)
• Express & Star (PA): Lucky couple celebrate winning same lottery jackpot twice (expressandstar.com)
• Age UK: Has anyone won the lottery twice? (ageuk.org.uk)