A former hairdresser told told how a £2.5 million lottery win has allowed her to buy everything - except love.
Single Andrea Holmes, 34, has splashed out on luxury cars, holidays and a plush property portfolio since winning the lottery nine years ago.
Andrea quit her job as a hairdresser, opened her own beauty spa and can buy anything she likes when she goes shopping.
But despite all the trappings of wealth Andrea is still unlucky in love and desperately hoping to meet the man of her dreams and start a family.
Andrea, who has invested the majority of her win and original savings for her future family and home in Wiltshire, says she had never found the right man.
She said: 'I was single at the time and my status is still the same. Maybe I'm too fussy, but I was quite independent then and I still am now.
'The money can be an issue for some, but I still live the same way as I did before. I would like to settle down at some point.
'I believe that it will happen at some point and it will come up when it does but it has not so far. I'm very busy and I have not been actively looking for love.
'I would really like a family of my own one day as well so I have been trying to make the money last.
'I want to be able to do things for my children and give them a better life than I had.
'My parents tried their hardest for me but you always want to give your children better than you had yourself.'
Andrea - who says her win had 'never sunk in' - bought her usual three lines of lottery tickets and a special Lucky Dip to cheer herself up in June 2002.
The former hairdresser moved out of the ex-council house she lived in with her parents and bought a sprawling four-bedroom property nearby in Wiltshire
She was previously 'over the moon' when she won £80 two years after starting to play the lottery just after her 16th birthday.
Andrea always handed over her tickets to mum Sandra Holmes, 60, who kept them safe and checked her numbers for her on the television.
It was Sandra who spotted the numbers on Andrea's Lucky Dip as they were announced and then had the task of persuading her daughter that she was a millionaire.
Andrea said: 'Mum shouted upstairs to me that I had won the lottery and we're quite a jokey family so I just assumed she was playing a practical joke.
'To be quite honest, I think the win has never really sunk it. It is just such a life changing amount of money.
'I would have been delighted to have won £10, I was chuffed when I won £80 but £2.5 million is just too much to take in.'
Trading up: Andrea swapped her clapped out Ford Fiesta for a Mercedes SL 350
Andrea did not touch her win for a few weeks - and says her bank even phoned her to tell her that she could use the account.
After that, she traded her clapped out Ford Fiesta in for a brand new Peugeot 206, which she traded in for a BMW convertible two years later.
After three years she traded her BMW in for a Mercedes SL 350 and now owns a Mercedes SLK, which she bought four years ago.
Andrea took her parents, Sandra and dad Bill, 63, on a cruise to the Canary Islands, after her win, and gave a chunk of the winnings to her brothers and sister.
She has also taken her friends and family to on holidays to exotic locations such as Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Amsterdam and Norway.
Despite her wealth, Andrea still shops on the high street and regularly picks up tops in New Look and Debenhams - although admits she can buy anything she likes.
The former hairdresser moved out of the ex-council house she lived in with her parents, both former pizza factory workers, and bought a sprawling four-bedroom property nearby.
She now lives there alone with her six-year-old Border Collie 'Troy' and eight-year-old African Grey parrot 'Red'.
Andrea purchased a portfolio of properties around Devizes two years ago and acts as a landlady for a number of tenants across the town.
She has started renting out a room in a local beauty parlour in Devizes, where she employs a beautician who offers 'fish spa' treatments.
Amazingly, Andrea still plays the lottery every week and spends her money wisely.
She said: 'It's amazing how the lottery has changed my life. It has given me much more confidence.
'But I am careful with money too. If you spend it wisely and look after it then it will look after you.
'I felt a bit bad when I started playing the lottery again as I had been so lucky but then nobody seemed to mind.
'It's really nice to go back into the shop where I bought my winning ticket and buy more.'
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