A NEWLYWED from Cwmfelinfach is celebrating winning £100,000 on a National Lottery Scratchcard.

Shaun Allen, aged 29, won the top prize on the Monopoly Scratchard, from the National Lottery GameStore, on September 12. It will enable him to embark on the dream honeymoon he has been hoping for since he married in March this year.

Mr Allen said: “I got married in March and have been saving up for our honeymoon ever since. Now that we don’t have to worry about the cost, we can start planning our dream honeymoon. I’ve always wanted to go to Vegas so I think we’ll start pricing it up.”

It was second time lucky for the warehouse worker who had bought a scratchcard when he was ‘feeling lucky’ on Friday but didn’t win anything. His £100,000 win came the day after when Mr Allen decided to give it another go, and scooped the top prize.

Mr Allen who is originally from Shrewsbury said he was visiting family there when he bought the scratchcard.

He said: "I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that I had won. I rang Camelot to check it was all real before I even told my wife, who was away on a hen weekend at the time.

“This win will really be life changing for us, allowing us to finally go on our honeymoon and to buy our first home as a married couple. I still can’t quite believe it.”

There is a 1 in 4.2 overall chance of winning a prize on the Monopoly Scratchcard. The card costs £2 and prizes range from £2 up to the top prize of £100,000.

There have been more than 1,200 individual National Lottery grants made to date within the Newport postcode including the Gaweda Trust, a food bank in Newport which provides emergency food to aid to people who are in desperate situations and have no means of purchasing food for their families.

The fund has also helped RASCALS, an after school club in Newport which encourages children to take healthy exercise in a fun way by opening an additional session with new soft play equipment.

For more information on National Lottery funding visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk