LET it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Those will forever be the favourite festive song lines for a 36-year-old Golborne woman who won a £26,000 bingo jackpot.

The lucky winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, brought the house down when snow forced her to cancel birthday meal celebrations and play bingo instead.

On Saturday she and her boyfriend were planning to dine with friends to celebrate her December 27 birthday, but snow meant they couldn't make it.

Instead they decided to try their luck at Shipley's bingo club in Leigh and there she scooped the national bingo prize of £22,500, the regional haul of £3,451 plus a £171 house prize.

The win could have been almost double in size but she had to share the national £45,000 jackpot with another winner from Warwickshire who also scored a full house in 39 numbers, the fewest nationwide.

The winner, a machine operator who has a 14-year-old daughter, said her first intention was to buy the council house they live in.

She said: "I was in a complete state of shock when I realised how much I had won, I still can't believe it."

Since the national bingo game began in 1986 £616 million has been paid out. The total weekly payout is over £1 million and top prize most evenings is £100,000.