A woman’s wedding date has turned her into a millionaire after she uncovered the lucky number on a scratch card on Independence Day.

Dawn Collis could not believe her eyes after she became the first ever million-dollar winner in a new USD 10 (GBP 7.7) game called Jumbo Bucks on Tuesday, 4th July.

She said in a statement obtained by Newsflash from North Carolina Education Lottery: “I had always envisioned winning big. It was still a little bit of shock and disbelief.”

Dawn had reportedly just welcomed her daughter and son-in-law at her home in the city of Gastonia, North Carolina State, USA, when her husband bought several instant tickets for all of them.

The four of them then engaged in scratching the tickets off when Dawn suddenly reached number 23 and uncovered a USD one million (GBP 776,650) prize.

Dawn said: “It was the No. 23. That’s our lucky number. We were married on 23rd July.”

The lucky lady explained how her husband had purchased the scratch cards from a local S&D Food Mart and added: “We like to all scratch together for entertainment.”

At lottery headquarters on Friday (7th July), Dawn confessed: “It still feels a little bit surreal.”

She was then given the option to choose between taking a USD 600,000 (GBP 465,633) lump sum or receiving the prize in annual payments of USD 50,000 (GBP 38,802) over the next 20 years.

Dawn chose the lump-sum amount and went home with USD 427,503 (GBP 331,684) after state and federal taxes.

She revealed that she will save most of the money, but might use some of it for a well-deserved holiday.

North Carolina Education Lottery officials said: “Jumbo Bucks debuted in June with seven USD 1 million prizes [GBP 776,650].

“Six USD 1 million [GBP 776,650] prizes remain to be claimed.”