Single mother's £8.5m lotto win

The ex-cinema worker has already handed in her notice

A single mother-of-three says she had never tasted champagne before winning more than £8m on the National Lottery.

Jennifer Southall, from Newport, only discovered she had won the jackpot six days after the Easter Saturday draw, when she checked the ticket at Tesco.

The 43-year-old cinema supervisor said: "The shop assistant looked at me and said: 'I think you've won rather a lot of money.'"

Ms Southall earned £5.85 an hour before winning the £8,372,751.

She has already handed in her notice at Cineworld in Newport and gone on a shopping spree with her mother and sister.

"We thought we'd go mad and go shopping together in Newport," she said.

"I've never gone through so much money before in a single day.

"I spent about £1,500 on clothes, phones, a new handbag and a posh pair of trainers. We had great fun."

She plans a room in a big house away from her sons' "blaring" music

Ms Southall said her lucky dip ticket, with the numbers 23, 24, 30, 31, 33 and 37, was inside her bra for safe-keeping when she was told she had hit the jackpot by a shop assistant at Tesco.

"When she printed off the slip showing exactly what I'd won I started dancing from one foot to the other.

"A queue of people had built up behind me and they must have thought I was some sort of demented fool.

She now intends to spend her money on learning to drive, buying a new car and going abroad for the first time on holiday - she hasn't yet got a passport.

Ms Southall will also move out of her rented council house on the city's Ringland estate.

She added: "I've always wanted to live in a big house with a swimming pool and a bedroom for me that's far enough away from the kids that I won't be able to hear their music blaring any more.

"In fact, even though I still feel sick and in shock at having won so much money, believe me I'm going to enjoy spending it."