A mum with just £85 in the bank has become a lottery millionaire and said: “It will be the best Christmas ever.”
Katie Smythe, 24, needed help from her dad to pay the bills days before she bought a £1million winning scratchcard at her local shop.
But she almost BINNED the Merry Millionaire Scratchcard at first after failing to notice she had scooped the windfall.
Beaming Katie said: "I can honestly say that this is what dreams are made of.
"We have literally gone from having absolutely nothing to being able to buy whatever we want. It feels a little bit scary - but so very good all at the same time."
Katie and fiance of seven years Nicky Butler, 26, now plan to marry, buy a home and take the family to Disneyland.
The couple are planning a wedding to remember, but a bumper Christmas celebration for family and relatives will come first.
The couple live with their three children, aged five, four and one, in Hengoed, near Caerphilly.
She scooped the jackpot which she bought at a local branch of Spar in High Street, Fleur de Lis, Blackwood.
"I was in the shop and decided to play the Scratchcard I had just bought," she said today.
"Even though I unveiled the jackpot number 25 which was worth £1m it didn't sink in and I just kept on until I revealed all the other numbers.
"I got to the end and was just about the throw it away when my friend screamed 'look what you've won' and I just stared at it in disbelief.
"I rang Nicky from the shop, but he didn't believe me. He wouldn't even believe it when the shop assistant assured him I'd won.
"He only believed me when I got back to the house and showed him the card."
She added: "Nicky proposed to me a while ago, but we just haven't been able to afford a wedding. Now, we'll be able to have a wedding I could only ever have dreamed of.
"And what a Christmas we'll all have. We're a large and very close-knit family and we love our own company.
"We celebrated the win with two family parties and I can only think that Christmas this year will be such a special one for all of us now."