An engineer from Wirral, Merseyside, has spent the last 20 months of his life fretting over a lost EuroMillions ticket he believes was worth £1 million.
Ian Galtress, 41, bought two tickets for the EuroMillions draw held on July 27, 2012. He gave one ticket to his girlfriend and kept the other, but later lost it.
When the EuroMillions Raffle numbers were announced his girlfriend's ticket matched all but one of the numbers and only missed the final one by a digit. Galtress believes the tickets were numbered in sequence and that his lost ticket was the winner.
A bad situation became even worse when lottery organizers, Camelot, announced they were looking for a EuroMillions Raffle winner in the Wirral area.
"It's ruined my life. I've lost lots of weight. I'm not sleeping because of the anxiety in me," Galtress said. "I feel like I have been ripped off, robbed, or kicked to the curb. I just want to rebuild my life."
The loss of a lottery ticket does not have to entail the loss of a prize. If players can provide the lottery with certain specifics, such as where and when they bought the ticket, along with their chosen numbers, the lottery may still award them the prize.
For Galtress though, it is far too late. The claim deadline has passed and the prize has already gone to National Lottery Good Causes.
All Galtress wants now is move on with his life, but before he can do so he needs something from Camelot.
"All I want is a definitive answer saying if it's me or not," Galtress said.
Camelot is looking into the matter and expects to have an answer for him in a few days.
