National Lottery winner from Kettering bags £1m jackpot as breast cancer treatment ends

Maxine Lloyd and Wayne Wilbury, from Kettering, Northamptonshire. Ms Lloyd won a lottery jackpot shortly before getting the all-clear from cancer.
Maxine Lloyd and Wayne Wilbury, from Kettering, Northamptonshire. Ms Lloyd won a lottery jackpot shortly before getting the all-clear from cancer. Credit: Press Association

An NHS worker won a £1m lottery jackpot shortly before receiving the all-clear from her breast cancer treatment.

Maxine Lloyd had recently finished a course of chemotherapy and was part-way through her final two weeks of radiotherapy when she decided to "have a flutter" on an online game late one night.

The 50-year-old said she "didn't quite get the game" and, even after receiving a message to say she had won, carried on playing.

She later woke her fiance, Wayne Tilbury, to tell him the news.

"I went to wake Wayne up and said 'Wayne, we've won £1 million'," she said.

"He literally stirred and went 'Well, you can't do anything about it now so go back to sleep'.

"So I had to wait all night until he woke up."

The occupational therapist, from Kettering in Northamptonshire, has since rung the bell to mark the end of her cancer treatment, and the couple have begun house hunting.

"I feel really lucky," Ms Lloyd said. "I'm here, I'm alive, and we've just had a bit of a cherry on the top of the cake, really."

The NHS worker decided to use the publicity around her win to encourage other women and men to regularly check themselves over and speak to a GP if they have concerns.

"We didn't want to go public initially," said Ms Lloyd, who received a notification that the money had transferred to her bank account while at hospital.

"But I'm really passionate that if one woman, or man, goes and just checks their skin or their breast... if there's anything different, let the specialist tell you that - which is what they did to me."

The lottery win was just the first celebration for NHS worker Maxine Lloyd, as she received the all-clear from cancer just days later. Credit: PA

Now she has had the all-clear from cancer, Ms Lloyd said she wants to "give something back" for the treatment she received.

"Life's been a little bit mad and there's lots of little things that I think will help - small things like... breast cancer gowns," she said.

"We also wanted to treat the children, and being able to do that, that made us smile and absorb it a bit.

"We were really lucky in life before - we have an amazing family and friends.

"We were rich in life before this, really lucky."

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