Thurso mum wins top prize of £250k and donates £10k to charity thanks to Kilted Competitions
A Thurso woman is quids in after winning a life-changing amount of cash and made charity donations thanks to an online competition.
Sarah Allan officially received a cheque for £250,000 from Kilted Competitions last week (September 5) and donated £10,000 to charities of her choice as an added bonus.
“I feel incredibly lucky and slightly overwhelmed by it,” said Sarah.
“They called me on Sunday night to say I’d won. You buy a ticket from their website and all the numbers go into a draw. They do a live draw on Facebook and my ticket number came out.”
Sarah, who is a lecturer in veterinary nursing at UHI Thurso, said she was not online to see that she had won and was just relaxing in front of the TV on Sunday evening. “They just called me out of the blue,” she said.
The 45-year-old mum, who has a 25-year-old son and twins aged 18, said she had not planned anything for the huge cash prize and would take her time to think it over after the initial shock had worn off. “I’m sure we’ll go on a nice holiday but what else I’ll do with the money I’m not too sure.”
She said that Katie Barker from Kilted Competitions arrived at her door on Thursday evening and presented her with the £250k cheque along with flowers and champagne. “It was really nice meeting them,” she added.
As part of the prize win, she was also invited to donate an extra £10,000 to two charities of her choice courtesy of Kilted Competitions – Highland Wildlife Rescue based in Brora and the Caithness Foodbank in Thurso.
“It felt amazing being able to help them, the best feeling ever.
“I’m a veterinary nurse lecturer so animals are at my heart. The Highland Wildlife Rescue is such a small charity and work incredibly hard all year round. The Caithness Foodbank do so much to help other families that are struggling and it’s nice to help there as well.”
Sarah said she had only been playing the online competition for a couple of months and had just spent around £10 on two tickets when she won but had gained some free credits to buy 14 tickets in total.
Thurso had also come up trumps a couple of months ago when a total of £1.95 million was handed out in a People’s Postcode Lottery bumper prize to various neighbours. Cheques for £150,000 each were given to the jackpot winners – with one lucky householder pocketing a total of £450,000.
“That was absolutely amazing as well,” added Sarah. “It’s all happening here in Thurso. I would definitely urge people to give the competition a try.”
Kilted Competitions is based in Montrose and says it provides “participants with the chance to win luxury prizes at affordable entry prices”. Over the three years of being operational, it has built a “vibrant community of winners” with millions of prizes awarded.
Kilted Competitions is an internet-based, family-run competition site. It also has a Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/KiltedCompetitions
Kevin Barker director of Kilted Competitions said: “We have given away millions of pounds of prizes to players all over the UK. Sarah is our biggest-ever winner to date and we are absolutely delighted for her and her family.”
He added that there have been two recent winners in Wick, a woman who won £50,000 and another who received a luxury car thanks to Kilted Competitions.
“You can win anything from houses to holidays, cash prizes, tech prizes, tickets for concerts and all sorts of things. Kilted Competitions is quickly gathering momentum and we’ve recently had 100,000 people sign up to the website.
“Every house competition includes a £10,000 donation to charity. We also sponsor a lot of local football teams and dancing clubs and donate to the Cash for Kids charity.”
