A North East family have credited a craving for a supermarket pigs in blanket sandwich for securing a big Christmas National Lottery Scratchcard win.

Rebecca Frater, 54, from Stockton, along with her family, discovered they had won £100,000 from a Jolly 7s National Lottery Scratchcard after her mother-in-law revealed she has scooped the top prize with her ticket at Christmas dinner.

The family were left in a state of confusion, quickly giving way to excitement, as the scale of their win set in around the dinner table.

Mrs Frater said the family’s win had come about after she and husband Nigel went out to buy a Tesco’s pigs in blanket sandwich at their local supermarket on Myton Road in Ingleby Barwick.

The Northern Echo: The family celebrate their win

She added she had decided to pick up the scratchcards as an extra gift for the family while her husband sought out the sarnie.

She said: “It always adds a bit of extra excitement and anticipation and it’s a lot of fun watching everyone scratching their scratchcards.

 “We agreed at the start of dinner that we would all scratch them at the same time and if anyone won, we would share the prize.

“As my mother-in-law scratched her scratchcard, she just had a look of total confusion on her face. She said,‘I don’t understand this, I have a seven? What does it mean?’ We very quickly realised that this meant we had won the top prize!

“My son thought it was just a trick – but I knew it had to be true!! The whole moment, when I think back now, was just quite surreal!”

Mrs Frater said she “ran out of the door” with several other members of her family as they quickly rushed to the shop to confirm their win.

The family were left jumping for joy after a shop assistant confirmed their win, despite being told the prize was too large to redeem at the time.

“The dinner was put on hold as I quite literally ran out of the front door clutching the card, with my son, sister and daughter-in-law - who was still in her ‘snuddie’ - running ahead in front,” she added.

“We burst into the local shop – desperate to hear the machine make that sound which indicates you are a winner – and it did!

 “We were literally jumping up and down as the shop assistant told us it was too large a sum to pay out.

“My daughter-in-law, who never drinks alcohol, even said she wanted to celebrate with a cocktail! We went home and were all too shocked and excited to eat our Christmas dinner! It was champagne and cocktails all round.”

The Northern Echo: Thomas Warrington, Chloe Mennell, Nigel Frater, Rebecca Frater, Isaac Frater, Kathleen Frater,

Mrs Frater and her husband, who are both retired, have already been out to buy their first dream purchases.

She treated herself to a Mulberry bag and purse, while her husband picked up a set of top of the range bowls.

Rebecca explained, “We don’t normally go to Tesco but Nigel had spotted their special Pigs in Blanket sandwich and really wanted to try it.

“If we hadn’t gone to Tesco for a festive sarnie on that day we wouldn’t have bought the scratchcards and we certainly wouldn’t be celebrating being £100k winners today!”

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Other members of the winning family unit include their son Thomas Warrington, 28, his girlfriend, Chloe Mennell, 30; Isaac Frater, 21, their other son; Mrs Frater’s sister, Angela Lathan, 62, and Mrs Frater’s mother-in-law, Kathleen, 76.

Rebecca said, “You always think that things like this happen to other people. This just shows you – normal people like us do win!”]

The family, who are all fans of Middlesbrough FC, were presented with a cheque for the amount at the club's Riverside stadium.

The Jolly 7s Scratchcard from The National Lottery has a 1 in 3.38 overall chance of winning a prize. The game costs £2 and prizes range from £2 up to the top prize of £100,000.