THIS year will be a life-changing one for a lucky Caerphilly Lotto player who has just claimed their whopping £1.8m jackpot prize.

Camelot UK Lotteries Limited, operator of The National Lottery, announced that the £1,896,064 jackpot prize from the Lotto draw on November 22, 2014, has now been claimed. The prize had remained outstanding in the Caerphilly County Borough since the draw of numbers 2, 3, 5, 15, 22, 29 and bonus ball 26.

The draw was the special Lotto draw to celebrate 20 years of The National Lottery in which 20 new millionaires were also created on the Lotto raffle. The lucky winner who bought the ticket in Caerphilly had until 21 May, 2015, to claim their prize but managed to claim it this week.

This follows an appeal by millionaire Llanbradach bowler Alun Jones, 29, was at Caerphilly’s iconic Tommy Cooper statue on Monday encouraging the town’s Lotto players to double-check their tickets for the chance to claim the £1,896,064 jackpot prize and become an instant millionaire.

Mr Jones, who scooped a £1,135,578 Lotto Jackpot on 16 January, 2013, was keen to track down the winning ticket which matched all six Lotto numbers on 22 November.

“Winning the lottery really is the best feeling and I couldn’t believe it when it happened to me – and it could have already happened to you too, but you must dig out any old tickets and double-check them," he said.

“I’ve had an absolutely amazing year since my win.

"My prize meant I’ve been able to travel to dream destinations – I took friends to Australia for the last Lions tour, and had a road trip around Italy, taking in an Andrea Bocelli concert while I was there, which was just amazing.

"I’ve also booked tickets to Wales’ Six Nations rugby game against Italy in Rome."

A National Lottery spokesperson said: “We’re delighted that the winner of this amazing prize has now come forward and we hope that they will enjoy their win – what a great way to start 2015.

“It would have been awful if the ticket-holder had missed out on this substantial and life-changing amount of money.

“We would like to remind all National Lottery players to check their tickets every time they play.”

If no-one had forward with the winning ticket before the prize claim deadline then the prize money, plus all the interest it has generated, will go to help National Lottery-funded projects across the UK. In the Caerphilly area alone nearly 1400 individual National Lottery grants have been awarded to help projects across the arts, sports, heritage, health, education, environment, charity, and voluntary sectors.