Get me a tranquilliser... what British cleaner said when she won £30m on lottery

Zorina Kroop, 63, chose all six winning numbers in the draw, which combines prize money from ten US states.

For two days, Mrs Kroop, who lives in California, carried her ticket around unaware of the fortune hidden at the bottom of her handbag.

She eventually learned of her good fortune when she returned to the local shop where she regularly buys lottery tickets twice a week and the manager led her into a back room.

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"He said, 'Sit down. You just won the Mega Millions - $60million.' I was stunned. I had to take a tranquilliser because I was getting palpitations, I was so excited," she said.

When she woke up the next morning, she told her pet chihuahua, which had slept beside her: "Chaiya, we're millionaires."

Mrs Kroop moved from England to California when she was 12 to join her mother, who had married an American man.

Having worked in bakeries and banks, she has spent the past two decades building up her Mrs Mops housekeeping service into a thriving business.

She now plans to visit Jewish relatives in London, who fled to the capital during the Second World War to escape the Nazis.

"I'm going to party," Mrs Kroop said.

"I'm going to see my family in London, my family in Israel, my family in New York and I'm going to the Greek Isles, which has been a dream of mine."

She also plans to spend some of her windfall on full-time nursing care for her elderly mother, a flat for her aunt and uncle, and to help her son pay off the mortgage on his home.

And she said she intends to donate money to charities dealing with research into pancreatic cancer, which took the life of her husband more than 25 years ago.

But Mrs Kroop, who still has a British accent and lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys, is determined she will continue to run her cleaning business.

She has already made a start on spending her winnings - at the local supermarket.

She added: "The first thing I did when I found out I won was to say, 'You know what, I'm not getting the discount plastic bags.'"

So she splashed out an extra £1 on extra-strong dustbin liners.

Mrs Kroop added: "I'm very, very grateful.

"This is a wonderful country. Money does grow on trees."