Navy senior rate Sharon Hall has her son Christopher to thank for her new status as a millionaire.

The Master-at-Arms had popped into a shop in Portchester, near Portsmouth, to buy him a drink on the way to his football practice when she decided on the spur of the moment to buy a National Lottery scratchcard.

To her amazement, casually scratching off the panels as she watched him warm up, she realised that she had won three games on the card — notching up the magic million.

“ I needed to tell John, my husband,” Sharon told Navy News after she had been presented with her cheque on board HMS Victory.

“I drove home, shaking. John was in the shower and was initially sceptical. He had to calm me down, but, sure enough, it was true.”

However, Sharon, who has been in the Navy for more than nineteen years and lives in married quarters, has no intention of giving up her job.

“With only two-and-a-half years to go, I’d be mad to,” she said. “Besides, I work with a really great bunch of people. The only difference will be that I suppose I’ll have to put more money in the tea fund now — and perhaps buy Earl Grey in future.”

Sharon — whose sister is a PO (SCC) at Sea Cadet Training School — now intends to invest in a new home and take her two children on holiday.