Woman misses out on £38m lottery pay-out

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As anyone who has ever paid into a lottery syndicate will know, the idea of pulling out and the group going on to win the jackpot is almost too cruel to bear.

So spare a thought for British woman Hazel Loveday, who left her work syndicate only six months before her bus driver colleagues won £38 million (NZ$73m) in the EuroMillions Lottery draw.

As the 12-man group worked out how to spend their £3,169,553 (NZ$6.1m) shares in the winnings, Miss Loveday, a 'completely broke' single mother, was left to rue the day she called a halt to her £2 (NZ$3.85) a week contribution because she couldn't afford it.

And to add insult to injury Miss Loveday, 36, discovered her bad luck from a hospital bed, after collapsing at work in an incident unrelated to the lottery news.

Last night Miss Loveday, who earns £17,000 (NZ$33,000) a year as a driver for Stagecoach and has a three-year-old son, was said to be 'devastated'.

Charles Connor, one of the winners, said: "We all feel sorry for Hazel but what can you do. You've got to be in it to win it."

He added: "Hazel's illness had nothing to do with our lottery win. She collapsed at work on Thursday - the day before the EuroMillions Lottery draw. I'm not sure what was wrong with her but she was rushed to hospital in an ambulance."

Miss Loveday, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, had been one of the original dozen drivers to set up the lottery syndicate, and paid into it for three years.

She was the only member to pull out when organiser Chris Smith decided they should change tactics, altering their numbers and entering the Irish and EuroMillions lotteries.

Her place went to another driver.

The group represents almost a quarter of the 60 drivers working out of the Stagecoach depot in Corby, Northamptonshire.

A friend told the Daily Mail: 'Hazel is absolutely gutted, devastated. She is completely broke. That is why she had to give up playing the lottery and now she has lost out on a fortune because she could not afford to pay for the ticket.'

Meanwhile the syndicate members were last night whisked off to a luxury hotel in preparation for going public at a press conference this morning.

Mr Connor, 40, added: "One of the lads picked me up this morning and we headed to the hotel. The ticket holder was given the directions and the rest of us followed.

"We were treated to a posh slap up meal. It was the full works. They even gave us caviar.

"We are not going to turn all posh just because we won a bit of money, but it was quite overwhelming.

"What I really want is a rest, I am knackered after this weekend. It has been surreal. I am a working class lad - I am not going to turn into some Lord Fauntleroy."

John Drew, the depot's manager, would only say: "The person who dropped out of the syndicate is currently in hospital."

Miss Loveday is now the only founding member of the syndicate left working for Stagecoach, after all the winning drivers quit their jobs. Winner John Noakes said: "It has been hard to leave work - a job I have been doing for years and years. But I had to - we all had to.

"You cannot drive a bus packed with 70 people when your mind is on other things, it's just not safe.'

Mr Noakes had been a bus driver for 16 years, the last nine for Stagecoach. Yesterday Mr Noakes told how he would be buying his wife Jean "whatever she wanted" - as well as swapping his Nissan Primera for an Aston Martin.

The brother of winner David Mead, 54, said the divorced father of four planned to "buy a new car and look after his family".

Other winning drivers have been named as Stephen Derrick, 53, Alexander Robertson, Christopher Smith, Ally Spence and Gary Symington.

The bus drivers are the fifth UK winners in a row to scoop the pan-European jackpot.

- DAILY MAIL