LUCKY teenager Louise Page has described winning a fabulous new £15,000 sports car in a raffle as 'heaven sent'.

For Louise, of Mimosa Close, Euxton, believes lady luck was really looking down on her in the shape of her beloved grandma who sadly died of lung cancer in August after a short illness.

Mary Page, who was in her eighties, was a former patient in St Catherine's Hospice, Lostock Hall, which runs the annual raffle.

Louise, 19, bought one of the two books of tickets posted by the hospice to the family home she shares with her mum Marjorie, 54, and dad Ollie, 48, and really hit the road to success when organisers rang just before Christmas to reveal she had scooped the first prize -- a super MGF sports car supplied by SGL of Chorley.

She said: "When they rang me up at work I said it is a gift from heaven from grandma."

Louise, a former pupil of Leyland St Mary's High School, who is now a full time university student at Runshaw College studying an HND in public services, added: "I was close to my grandma as a young child.

"She was an Irish lady, so you can expect what she was like, very chirpy, happy, bubbly. She was a lovely person."

Louise said it was the first time she had won anything. She currently drives a W-reg Fiesta and will be taking to the road in her new car in March.

John Nixon, of St Catherine's, said: "This was our third Christmas draw, tickets costing £1.

"It is quite obvious from the family's reaction that winning the car in itself is wonderful, but providing care for her grandmother in the hospice made it most special."

He added: "We were able to raise almost £19,000 the way we did with the generosity of SGL and Todd's Leisure who sponsored the cost of the production of the tickets.