Another bundle of joy for bingo-win mum
10:59am Tuesday 15th July 2008
A YOUNG mum is celebrating after scooping more than £10,000 playing bingo.
Susan Ralph, of St Joseph's Crescent, Chineham, beat bingo players from the town and across the country when she got a full house playing with friends at the Gala Bingo club at Basingstoke Leisure Park.
The 28-year-old, still on maternity leave after she gave birth to her son Calum in January, was shocked when she picked up the £10,500 in the Gala 5 game, where players in Gala bingo halls across the country take on each other in a network game.
Mrs Ralph had to get all 15 numbers to win the prize.
She said: "I felt like I was going to pass out. I was really shocked.
"I played the game but I did not think it was going to be me. I thought I had no chance and then my first seven numbers came out.
"I was very happy because it's come at the perfect time."
The mother-of-two said she will spend the money on a new car, and keep the rest to spend on her new child.
Linsey Strachan, assistant manager at Gala Bingo, said: "Mrs Ralph is a fairly regular customer.
"She's on maternity leave right now so, for her, it's quite a life-changing experience.
"The sum of £10,500 is a lot of money when you have just had a baby."
This is not the first time Mrs Ralph, a sales team leader at Barclays Bank, has won at the bingo. She scooped £600 in August last year.
And she said her luck at the bingo has rubbed off on her husband Paul.
She said: "He used to laugh at me for going, but now he wants to go.
"The reason my friends and I started going was because I was pregnant and could not go out as I used to.
"I started going on Sundays because it was a way of seeing my friends without having to drink."