As you’d probably expect, your chances of winning the lottery are pretty slim – one in 45 million to be exact.

However, Edwina and David Nylan, from Fleetwood, Lancs, were one of the lucky few to win a £35 million lotto jackpot.

But unfortunately for them, they ended up with nothing because of an unfortunate blunder.

The couple claimed they matched six of the winning lottery numbers while using the Lottomobile app during the festive period.

And they fully expected to see the new year start with millions of pounds in their back pocket.

However, that proved to be far from the case.

Edwina and David claim they bought the ticket for the draw on December 23, 2015.

But they quickly discovered a problem as they didn’t have the cash to go pay for the purchase of the ticket.

The couple added more money into the account and landed the numbers 01 – 02 – 04 – 19 – 28 – 41.

ITV

“David has an app on his phone which he uses to generate random numbers,” Edwina said.

“We scribbled them down, and they are stored on his phone.”

Following the draw, the pair tried to claim the whopping £35,410,034 jackpot prize – but they were told Camelot had no record of the transaction.

“When the numbers came up, it looked like we had got all six and had won the jackpot but when I checked, there was nothing from Camelot,” Edwina added.

“I rang customer services at Camelot and the person I spoke to said they could see from their records that we had intended to buy those numbers but they said the purchase did not go through because we only had 60p in our account.

She continued: “We had tried to top up the account, and hadn’t realised that hadn’t registered either.

“You get an email to confirm your purchase, but I didn’t remember to check because it was just before Christmas and I was so busy.

“Camelot has now told me they are looking into it with their IT department.”

Totally gutting, but that hasn’t stopped the couple from continuing to play the lottery.

ITV

“We have played for years, and had our online account for some time, so it is not as if we didn’t know what we were doing,” she said.

“I have just had to carry on with things and not get too down.

A spokesperson for Camelot said: “The player did attempt to purchase an online Lotto ticket multiple times on December 23 from 7pm onwards (the cut-off to buy tickets is 7.30pm), however, there were insufficient funds in the player’s account – so the attempted purchases were not successful.

“The player would have received an error message on every occasion confirming this.

“Only tickets that have been successfully purchased can be entered into the draw.

“So it is up to players to ensure that they have adequate funds in their account to complete a ticket purchase.”

A man who won a massive £7.6 million lottery jackpot gave away more than half of his prize money for one reason.

Ray Wragg and his late wife Barbara gave away a generous amount of cash after they won big on the National Lottery way back in January of the year 2000.

The pair were shocked when it was revealed that they were going to receive the £7 million jackpot prize after having matched six numbers on their gamble. However, they didn’t do what most people would have in their situation.

Instead of spending it all on lavish holidays and homes, cars and food, the now-86-year-old and his wife chose to give away more than £5.5 million.

To celebrate, instead of buying the best champagne, the pair drink Guinness and wine before calling their children to announce the news. The two then ‘effectively retired’ from work that night and went on to treat themselves with some of the winnings.

Ray and Barbara Wragg won nearly £8 million back in 2000 (SWNS)

Ray bought a £52,000 white Range Rover and then the pair set sail on a cruise around the Caribbean. Then, they started giving away their money which led to them being invited to Buckingham Palace and the Pride of Britain awards.

The retired roofer and former nurse decided that this money was more than enough to go around to others, and thousands of people ended up benefiting from their gift.

Now, if you think they kept the remaining money and splurged on that, you’d be wrong again.

In fact, they went on to live modestly, with Ray still checking prices on socks to this very day.

This is because they said the money wasn’t going to change them from who they were, and so, they donated to 17 separate charities – including a hospital in Sheffield where they lived.

Because of their generosity, they received a special trophy from lottery organisers.

They then went to Sheffield Hallamshire Hospital to pay for a bladder scanner and Weston Park Hospital where their daughter had been treated for Ewing’s sarcoma.

They wanted to help children in a local hospice and bought 30 television sets so every child had their own to enjoy.

The pair gave away over £5 million to numerous charities (SWNS)

On top of their hospital efforts, they also paid for 250 children, who came from a deprived inner-city school, to go to Sheffield’s pantomime for six years on the trot during Christmas.

Sadly, Barbara passed away from sepsis in 2018 at the age of 77, but she considered their winnings as being ‘too much for two people’.

Right now, Ray believes the same thing and told the BBC: “I was working, Barbara was working, the kids were working. We were all right. Like other families do, we saved up.

“It changed our lives but not us as persons. That’s stood us in good stead. I still look at the price of a pair of socks you know.”

Barbara visited the Royal Hallamshire Hospital breast clinic in 2010 and donated £5,000 after seeing a donations pot on the side, as well as making joint donations with Ray at the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, the Make a Wish Foundation, Whirlow Hall Farm Trust, the Meningitis Trust and Help The Aged.

They also helped a group of World War Two veterans on a trip to honour fallen comrades in 2003 and paid for 50 war heroes to visit Italy for the 60th anniversary of the battle of Monte Cassino in 2004.

The couple continued to live a modest life, despite the millions that suddenly appeared in their bank account (Getty Stock Image)

What other charities did they help?

Here’s a list:

Meningitis Trust, Macmillan Nurses, Childline, Help The Aged, Help For Heroes, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Monte Cassino Veterans, Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Bents Green School Sheffield, Manor Boxing Boys and Girls Club, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Park Hill School Sheffield, Park Hill Lodge Sheffield, Help A Hallam Child, Norton House Country Club, Breast Cancer Research headed by Professor Malcom Reed at Sheffield University.

What amazing Samaritans.

You might think that winning the lottery would be a dream come true, but for one person it seems to have turned into a nightmare.

We’ve all fantasised about what we would do if we won the lottery. It could range from the luxurious to the more mundane things like paying off student loans or putting all the money in a trust and living off the interest.

BBC/Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Lee Ryan became known as the ‘Lotto Lag’ when he became the first UK lottery winner to serve time in prison.

After winning in 1995, he spent his way through his £6.5 million win, buying a mansion with a pool, luxury cars, a helicopter, and even a plane.

By 2010 he was living on the streets and calling his lottery win a ‘curse’.

He told The Mirror: “People always think, ‘Oh, if I win tomorrow that will be the end of my worries’. That’s just not true, this is just the beginning of your worries.

“You will see who is who in your life, even in your own family it becomes fractured. It’s all just an illusion really. All these possessions trap you. People think you’re doing well because of what you’ve got, but I know people with so much money who are miserable.”

However despite going through a difficult time he has since managed to turn things around, and is now working as a painter and decorator.

Despite his win, he says that he now feels more at peace than he has before.

Lee Ryan

He said: “I believe in the law of attraction, so I think I will win again, but it won’t mean any more to me than it did before. I know it sounds weird, but I don’t need anything.”

He added: “If I had my time again, I’d open a hotel for the homeless. Then you feel you’ve done something worthwhile.”

Lee now lives in Twickenham, and compared the amount of wealth and possession he had to a ‘prison’. He claimed that he was always worried and on ‘constant lookout’.

He even said that he sometimes spends the night in a tent, just to remind himself that he is ‘bombproof’.

He said: “Now I’m just looking for that middle ground where you still have to strive for what you want, rather than just having it handed to you.”

“There was a time when I prayed for my pound back. But now at this point I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my whole life.”