A Basildon mum is on cloud nine after her numbers came up at bingo - netting her almost £30,000.

The 34-year-old married mother-of-three, who asked not to be named, won the prize playing bingo at the Mecca Club in Hornchurch.

She won a £28,275 share of Mecca's national prize game, with a further £1000 regional prize and a "club" prize of £56. With her husband currently unemployed, the windfall was an unexpected but very welcome bonus.

She said: "I have been a member at Mecca for ten years but I have not had any big wins in that time."

The woman completed her full house after just 41 numbers had been called, a feat matched by another woman in Whitley Bay, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

This meant the Basildon woman had to share the total national prize fund of £56,550.

Published Tuesday August 13, 2002

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