A ST HELENS woman has scooped more than £104,000 playing bingo.

The 36-year-old mother-of-three, who has asked not to be named, landed the bumper prize after shouting 'house' in a national link-up game at the Mecca club in Kirkland Street on Wednesday, July 4.

And she has already started making plans for her winnings by putting down a deposit to buy a holiday caravan in Wales for her children, a 14-year-old son and daughters aged eight and four.

She said:"On the morning of my win, my son had asked me for £40 to go on holiday with his friend's parents but I hadn't got it. So when I won the £99 house prize, I was really chuffed and thought, now he can go.

"At first I had no idea I stood a good chance of getting the regional or national prizes because I didn't look at how many numbers I called in, but people around me kept saying I could win it.

"And when they announced 20 minutes later that I had, it was totally unreal. I couldn't move or think, I was trying to get my head around it".

The lucky winner, who has been a member at Mecca since 1998, landed the National Bingo Game prize of £100,000, plus a further regional prize of £4,332 and the club prize of £99 after completing a full house in 37 numbers, the fewest anywhere nationwide.

"It was a standing joke with my family that I never won at bingo", she added, "but not any more".

Her first thought on what she might do with the prize money, apart from buying the holiday caravan, was to buy her council house.