IT'S CELEBRATION time for a lucky Urmston woman who hit the Bingo jackpot and scooped a whopping £108,000!

Mother of two Celee Dillon, from Davyhulme, has been going to bingo twice a week with her sister Marie and their mum, Ann, for more than thirty years - but she never dreamed they would have a win like this.

Celee, short for Cecilia - who says she is aged "49 and a bit, with a bit more each year", told SUM: "You don't think something like this will happen to you - it happens to other people, I couldn't believe it!"

Lady luck shone on the family while they were at their regular haunt - the Curzon Bingo and Social Club on Princess Road, Urmston.

Curzon manager, Barbara Rogerson expressed her delight at the win "This is the biggest ever win for us, although we have shared the National prize before. We are only a tiny club compared to some playing the National game, but this proves we can also get the big winner. We are all delighted for Celee and Marie".

Every week, the family have shared any winnings between them and when it came to this win, nothing changed - the cash has been split between Celee and sister Marie.

And kind-hearted Celee's first thought has been to spend a lot of the money treating other members of her family.

"The nicest thing about this win is that I can give little bits of pleasure to other people," said Celee "That's what I've really enjoyed - being able to help out with paying for holidays and things like that".

Celee is no newcomer to the spotlight. She has been a recent SUM Mum in a Million winner and was the driving force behind the Margaret Rodgers Appeal for Trafford General Hospital as well as being on the committee for the Macmillan Cancer care centre.

Recent events are still sinking in and Celee recalled the half hour she spent at Bingo on Wednesday last week waiting to find out if she had won the National Jackpot:

"It was agony. The manageress at Bingo had to ring around to see if anyone had won the money at another club before me - when she got on stage and congratulated me for winning over £100,000 everyone started clapping. I just started smiling".

And Celee can keep on smiling, while she decides what else to spend her winnings on!

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.