A GROUP of office workers dubbed the 'Magnificent Seven', who include a woman formerly from the North-East, were celebrating today after winning a share of the UK's biggest ever lottery prize.

The seven-strong syndicate, all based in Merseyside, scooped £45,570,835.50 in Friday's Euromillions draw, which had a whopping jackpot total of £91m.

The winners, who all work for Hewlett Packard carrying out IT work at a BT office in Liverpool, only formed their syndicate - called the Magnificent Seven - four months ago.

The syndicate includes John Walsh, 57, James Bennett, 28, Sean Connor, 32, Alex Parry, 19, Emma Cartwright, 23, Ceri Scullion, 35 and Donna Rhodes, 39, who have each banked £6.5m.

Ms Rhodes, who is originally from County Durham but has lived in Liverpool for ten years, lives with her partner David, 38, and their two teenage children.

She said: "I didn't have any holidays left and was due to work all over Christmas so the best news is I won't have to any more - instead I can hand in my notice.

"My mother Gladys is in her 70s and is the sole carer for my brother who suffers from MS, so we are hoping to buy a big house so they can come to live with us and we can help look after him as well.

"We'd also love a little holiday home in Malta."

Syndicate leader Mr Walsh said: "I couldn't sleep on Sunday morning so ended up checking the numbers on Teletext at 3am.

"I couldn't believe it when all our numbers came up. I had to wake up my wife, son and daughter so they could double check I wasn't dreaming."