‘The world just stood still’: Dornoch mum celebrates incredible double car win
A Dornoch mum who had hoped to win a car for her son’s seventeenth birthday said it felt like the “world stood still” when she found out that she had won not one - but two - cars after entering an online competition.
Hairdresser Lucy Pickup couldn’t believe her luck the first time around on July 28 when she received a phone call to tell her she had won a “high standard” Ford Fiesta 1.6 ST.
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She was even more gobsmacked just three months later when the phone rang again, this time to inform her she had won another “stunning” Ford Fiesta in a second prize giveaway run by Highland-based business A9 Competitions.
After emerging as the lucky winner from a list of over 6000 entries, not once - but twice - she admits that she “had a feeling” she was going to win.
A stunned Lucy said: “I’d never won anything before. The first car was the first time I had won anything.
“I saw the car advertised, but it had been on for a while, maybe about a month. With my son’s seventeenth birthday coming up I thought I would enter it, as if I won that it would be a lovely birthday present for him.
“I remember the evening of the draw, I had picked my son up from his girlfriend’s house and I was driving across the Dornoch Bridge at about 9.25pm. I thought, there’s five minutes left, I could buy a couple more tickets, but I didn’t bother as for some reason I felt like I’d already won it!
“It was like I had a premonition. Something in my head said, there’s no point in putting anymore tickets on as I already know I’m going to win.
“After missing the live draw, I went back home and check it, but before I could I got a phone call and it was Hughie from A9 Competitions telling me I’d won the ST!
“He took the car down to me the next day and that was that.”
The 35-year-old said her good luck gave her the bug for entering competitions, and just three months later she entered another which was due to be drawn on October 27.
“I then saw another car advertised and I bought some tickets,” she said. “It was on again for about a month and on the day of the draw, I was just watching a movie, and my heart stopped when the phone rang again!
“I answered it and I heard the words, ‘Hi, it’s Hughie from A9 Competitions, you’ve won another car!’
“The world just stood still for a minute. I thought, surely not, how has this happened?”
Advertised as car or cash prizes, lucky Lucy’s overall prize haul amounted to an equivalent of £10,000.
But due to her son Liam being a learner driver, the new Fiestas ultimately proved too costly to insure - but her good fortune has instead meant she could spend the cash on improvements around the home, while also securing a set of wheels.
“Unfortunately, the cars proved far too fast for my son,” she explains. “So we have ended up selling them, but we got a great price for them.
“With the money from selling the cars, we have since been able to buy Liam a small car to pass his test in and I’ve also been able to do the house up too. It’s been great.”
A9 Competitions, run by a father and son duo from Helmsdale and Tain, have been running online prize giveaways and “instant win” lotteries since 2022, usually broadcasting draws live on Facebook using a random number generator.
A family run business, the venture is the “passion project” of Hugh MacLeod Snr, from Berriedale and his son, Hugh Macleod Jnr, who lives in Balintore.
The Highland-based firm says it is aims to ensure online competitions are “fair and reliable, with a range of amazing, luxury grand prizes and instant wins carried across every competition” using a “platform that promotes community and opportunity.”
On Lucy’s incredible double-win, A9 Competitions co-owner Hugh Macleod Snr said: “We were as stunned as each other when Lucy’s name came up for a second car win.”
Lucy added: “It just shows you, you never think it’s going to happen to you, but it can happen. Hopefully it’s going to be the lottery next!”
“One of my relatives met me recently and said she wanted to rub my arm for good luck, and just the other week she won an iPad at A9 Competitions! They do say the good luck comes in threes…”
