A RETIRED couple have netted a lifechanging Lotto win – after numbers they inherited came up 17 years after they were first chosen.

Robert and Carrie McDowell, pictured, from Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, scooped £115,486 after matching five numbers and the bonus ball on Saturday’s draw.

Many people pick numbers with a personal attachment, but their lucky selection were the same numbers 63- year-old Mrs McDowell’s mother Hilda played when she was alive.

The couple were enjoying a week’s touring holiday in their MX-5 – named Lulu – when they found out, and the ticket was kept safely in Mr McDowell’s wallet during the day and under his pillow at night.

They had bought their winning ticket numbers – 3, 5, 24, 31, 48 and 49 and the bonus 15 – from the Co-op store in Rookley.

A delighted Mr McDowell, 67, said: “As the numbers came up I said to Carrie, ‘you won’t believe this, we’ve got five, that’s got to be about £2,000.’

“It was only when the bonus ball came up that our jaws dropped to the floor. We just couldn’t believe our numbers had come up!”