A woman who won a £1 million Omaze jackpot nearly missed out on the prize after ignoring emails from the company. Steph Churchill, 36, only discovered she had become a millionaire when she finally opened the messages she had ignored while travelling back from a funeral.
Omaze struggled to contact Steph as she had not provided a phone number and had recently moved house without updating her address. The company had to track her down to her previous property before delivering the news. Steph eventually replied, and her life 'changed forever' in a matter of moments.
After learning of her win, Steph celebrated by drinking Champagne from the bottle in a cricket club car park. Her husband Rob, who was driving, declined the drink and went to work as usual the following day. 'I’d been travelling back from a funeral, so I was totally offline, and I missed all the emails,' Steph told The Sun. 'When I finally checked my inbox and saw emails from Omaze, I just ignored them at first.'
Steph admitted that friends initially thought she was playing an April Fools' prank when she told them about the winnings. 'I was shouting down the phone, ‘I’ve just won a million pounds’ and they just thought I was playing an early April Fools on them,' she said. The couple soon returned to reality, taking their dogs for a walk in a muddy field.
Since the win, Steph and Rob have booked dream holidays to France, Japan, and Australia. They also plan to rescue more dogs and are considering starting a family, though Steph first wants a luxury hot tub for the garden.
