Racing Lottery winner enlists drivers to create music track

“People always ask me what is the best thing I have bought with my lottery winnings, and I always answer ‘time’.”

Susan Herdman won £1.2m on the National Lottery in January 2010.

The money not only bought her time, it bought her security,

“I had just taken a 25-year mortgage out to buy a new house, I was a single mum and I ran my own hairdressing business. It was my responsibility to make sure the mortgage was paid on time every month and it was something I did worry about.

“The Lottery win took all that worry away, it meant I only ended up paying one month’s repayments as I was then able to pay the whole thing off.”

Sue has always done the National Lottery and still does. On the night she won in January 2010, she’d decided to stay in and was just cooking her supper when she saw the Lottery show was on.

“I paused it as I liked the quiz show that was on after the numbers were chosen and went back into the kitchen to get my dinner. When I went back in the TV had paused with the numbers up. I thought I had a couple of them and then I went to get my ticket and realised that I had six numbers.”

Sue rang the number of the back of her ticket and was told someone would ring her in the morning.

“I knew I had won but it had no idea how much. It was just my luck that it would have been the one night loads of people got six numbers.”

She couldn’t settle and so went down to the pub and did some karaoke.

“I didn’t tell anyone I had won and I kept my winning ticket down my bra,” says Sue.

But when she got back from the pub she checked on the internet and discovered she had won more than £1m.

“I didn’t jump around or go hysterical I just felt relieved more than anything.”

Sue’s numbers had originally been her dad’s but he had handed them over to her when he decided not to do the lottery any more.

She didn’t rush out and go a lavish holiday or buy an entire new wardrobe of clothes, this country women wasn’t going to waste her winnings.

Susan knew that in order to secure a future for her son Jake she needed to invest her win wisely.

So rather than buying something frivolous, Susan sold her hairdressing business and moved up to Yorkshire to help partner Andrew Hornshaw run the family pig farm.

“I had always been a country girl and even the hairdressers I owned and ran was in a remote part of Herefordshire. The lottery win meant that I could move up to Yorkshire with my Andrew to help him run the family pig farm which I just love.”

The win also allowed her to pursue her passion for Autograss racing.

“Both my parents were racers and I was born and bred on the race track,” explains Susan who is currently the Autograss women’s national champion.

“I had my first race at 14 – it’s in my blood and it is where I met Andrew. We had a long distance relationship before I won the Lottery and the win meant I could move up to be with him once my son Jake left school.”

May be it is her good fortune or just her nature but Susan also does a lot for charity. Now, along with her Autograss Allstars buddies, Susan has brought out a charity Christmas single which has already raised more than £23,000 for Cancer Research UK.

“There are more than 4,000 Autograss members nationally and it is really like one big family. We have always done things for charity such as a calendar and have raised more than £19,000 in the past.

“Last year one of our members Gareth Jones suggested doing a charity single, but the cost of actually producing it and the logistics of getting everyone together put us off,” adds Susan.

But this summer Susan dec