Waitress scoops scratchcard million

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Maria Murray, 41, said she spent the last £5 in her purse on the Merry Millions scratchcard.

She said she had just bought the food for her Christmas dinner when she decided on the last-minute gamble at tea time on Christmas Eve. And, even when she revealed the £1 million win on the card outside the shop near her home in Avonmouth, Bristol, she said she initially thought she had just won £1.

But her former partner, Tim Hunt, who was with her at the time, assured her she had scooped the jackpot and shop staff confirmed the huge win.

Ms Murray insisted she will continue working at Jenny's Cafe in Avonmouth where she supports her family on the minimum wage as a part-time waitress who sometimes helps with the cooking. She said she even went to work on Boxing Day.

She said she wanted to make sure her children - Terri, 21, Toni, 20, Ricki, 19, and Todd, 17 - understood the importance of a work ethic. But she joked she also wanted to make sure they each kept paying her their £150-a-month board. "I want to keep myself within the community," she said.

Ms Murray described how money had always been tight in her family and she had planned a frugal Christmas with a big dinner but only cards for the children.

She said she bought the scratchcard so late on Christmas Eve there was no time for a last minute present buying frenzy.

The mother-of-four said she still has not had time to let everything sink in.

Ms Murray said her only firm plan was to buy her three-bedroom council house where she has lived for 18 years and realise her ambition of owning a Mini Cooper. "Not a new one, I'll get a second-hand one, that'll do me," she said.