THEY say luck comes in threes, and it was certainly true for a Bedale woman who scooped almost £2m on the national lottery.

Taxi driver, Mrs Shirley Garbutt, and her husband, Bob, started a lucky week by winning a seven-day holiday to Spain on January 10. Four days later, Mr Garbutt won 20 pints of beer in a draw at the local pub then, on Wednesday of last week, his wife hit the lottery jackpot.

Still slightly shell-shocked, the couple were at the Scotch Corner hotel last Friday to collect a cheque for £1,963,348 from Ms Sheila Radford, of lottery operators Camelot.

"It's still just sinking in," said Mrs Garbutt, aged 39, who single-handedly runs Shirley's Taxis. "I was working on the Wednesday evening and came home for a cup of tea and a sandwich to keep me going to midnight.

"As usual, Bob had scribbled the lottery numbers down in our book and I checked my tickets against the book. I put Teletext on to check them. I thought I had five numbers, but realised Bob had written down 26 instead of 24. I couldn't believe it. It began to dawn on me I had six numbers."

But rather than crack open the champagne there and then, Mrs Garbutt put her customers first and was back driving her taxi by 11pm - and has no plans to quit the job.

"I've worked all my life," she said. "I enjoy what I do. I was back at work early the following morning. We are still going down to the local pub to have a drink with friends. They were even buying me drinks after the win, that's the sort of people they are."

Mr Garbutt, a 55-year-old construction worker who often puts in 12-hour shifts six days a week, admitted to still feeling shocked about the win. "I am amazed. I just can't describe how it feels," he said.

He may give up his job to join his wife as a driver in the firm she set up last April after ten years of taxi driving.

Though still getting used to being millionaires, the couple said a bigger house was likely to feature on the shopping list.

"My 13-year-old daughter, Beverly, said it would be nice so her friends didn't have to sleep on the floor in her room when they stay," said Mrs Garbutt. "But we will definitely stay in Bedale."

There are no plans for a flash new car. "I drive a Rover at the moment and it has done me well so far," she said.

Though the couple play three lines on the lottery every Wednesday and Saturday, the winning ticket was a spur-of-the-moment purchase when Mrs Garbutt was buying newspapers at Maynews in Market Court, Bedale.

"I had three pounds in my pocket and I did two lines of numbers chosen at random and a lucky dip. It was the first line that was the winner," she said. The winning numbers were 10, 13, 24, 31, 36 and 47.

The twice-weekly trip to the lottery terminal will continue. "We'll still keep playing every week. You just never know," she said.