Sonia Davies and Family Win £61 Million on EuroMillions

A family from Monmouth celebrated a £61.1 million EuroMillions win in July 2016, just days after mother Sonia Davies underwent life-saving surgery on a tumour. The 53-year-old had travelled to Florida in the US to have the growth removed from her parathyroid gland and, when she was given the all clear, felt she should capitalise on her good luck by buying lottery tickets.

Sonia and her partner Keith called home to ask Sonia’s daughter Stephanie to pick up some entries for the multiple rollover EuroMillions draw, clubbing together with her other daughter Courtney and Stephanie’s boyfriend Steve. It turned out to be the correct decision, as the numbers on one of their six Lucky Dip tickets came up and won each member of the group £12.2 million.

“I felt like I had cheated death and felt so, so lucky,” Sonia told the press, “you just feel like, we're on a roll, let's buy a lottery ticket because we're so lucky.” Stephanie discovered the group’s good fortune before she went to bed on the night of the draw and admitted she had to check the numbers ten times before she allowed herself to believe the win was real.

She phoned her mum and Keith to share the news as they were waiting at the airport for a delayed plane back home. Having found a quiet corner in which to check the numbers themselves, Sonia and Keith endured what they described as “the longest flight of our life” before they were reunited with the other members of their multimillion-pound winning syndicate.