Lottery housewife to spend £1.2m winnings giving foster children a better life

And the couple said the money will help with their plans to start fostering children once they have moved into a new house.

Susan Crossland, 44, told how she and her husband Michael, 39, nearly missed the six numbers which scooped her £1,218,618 at the weekend because they were celebrating winning £74 on three other lines on their Lotto card.

Winners: Susan and Michael Crossland of Dewsbury believe a flurry of feathers signalled their win of the National Lottery

Mrs Crossland won on the Lotto draw on Saturday July 19. Asked about what they did on Monday morning after realising they had won, she said: 'He went to work and I went to Netto's'.

But she burst into tears when she described how she believes a shower of white feathers a week before her win was a "gift" from her late father predicting something good was going to happen to her.

Mr Crossland explained how his wife found a single white feather on the doorstep following her father's death two years ago and she had kept it.

In the days leading up to her lucky day and her 44th birthday on Friday, they began to find white feathers all over the place.

The couple also won on the set of numbers her father used to play the lottery with.  The winning numbers were 6, 9, 13, 18, 29, and 30.

Toasting success: The Crosslands with their winning cheque. They plan to foster children with the proceeds

Mrs Crossland said: "My win must have been fate which is why I saw the feathers and won on his number line."

Her husband said: "A week before the lottery win there were white feathers dropping into the garden and all around.

"She thought it was because of her dad and because it was near to her birthday.

"There was another white feather and then another white feather and then, obviously, it was the jackpot."

Mr Crossland said the origin of the feathers was still a mystery.

"Because I can't see birds landing in the garden what with having dogs," he said.

He described how they nearly missed the vital six numbers on the bottom of their five lines.

He said that in the previous four lines they had checked they had already won £10 and then got two consecutive lines of four correct numbers which netted them £32 for each.

"We had already started to celebrate these four numbers and were checking how much we had won and so we nearly missed the last line with the six numbers," he said.

The couple, from Ravensthorpe, near Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said they are still coming to terms with their win and have no plans to change their lives apart from buying a new house.

She said the move was already planned but the cash will make it happened more quickly.

Mrs Crossland said it would also help bring up her four children.

Her husband said he has no plans to give up work at a Kershaw's Dairy, in Mirfield, despite the 3.30am starts.

He said: "It's a nice job, nice people I work with. There's five of us and we're just a good set of lads working together."

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