A 71-YEAR-OLD man is celebrating a £9,000 win on the East Lancashire Hospice Lottery.

John Mercer was expecting to collect £250 when he was told he had scooped the second prize in the charity’s weekly draw.

But lucky John was unaware that the prize was a rollover amount – and hadn’t been claimed for almost a year.

He said: “When the lottery co-ordinator Gill Wilkinson told me I had won she said ‘are you sitting down?’ “I said ‘no, but I can be’. But to be honest I thought to myself ‘£250 isn’t that big a deal’.

“That’s when she said it had been rolling over since last June and told me it was £9,000.”

The pensioner, from Great Harwood, joined the lottery because his wife Barbara and dad John were both cared for and died at the hospice in Park Lee Road, Blackburn.

He said: “I’ve got good memories of the care they received while they were in there and how good the staff were with me, too.

“They were helpful and kind and there was a good atmosphere in there.

“I contribute every week and even if it’s only a few pounds, it all helps.”

The former BT telephone engineer said he hoped to spend the money on improvements to his home or on a holiday to Lanzarote with his partner Elaine Beaumont.

The hospice lottery, which costs £1 per entry per week, has about 5,500 members.

Approximately 65 to 75p in the pound goes directly to patient care.

The draw takes place every Friday with 18 cash prizes up for grabs. First prize is £1,000, the second prize is £250, the third is £100 and there are 15 further £10 prizes.

The hospice introduced the second-prize rollover in 2010.

Now when it is drawn, extra randomly generated numbers are entered by the lottery provider.

If the number selected doesn’t belong to anyone then it becomes a rollover, with the £250 added on to the following week’s fund, up to a maximum of £10,000.

To join the hospice lottery, call 01254 733416.