A syndicate of five dinner ladies from Brighton have banked a jackpot of £2,147,580 in the Lotto.

The four ladies and one gentleman each won a life-changing £429,516 in the draw on December 29 with the ticket bought in Sainsbury’s on New England Street, Brighton.

The syndicate of work colleagues have been playing every Wednesday and Saturday for 18 months, using a set of numbers chosen by each of the syndicate members.

Coris Bondsfield, 46, would buy the ticket for the group at a local National Lottery retailer and check the previous week results in her local paper.

But she swapped the weekly routine to discover the life-changing win.

She revealed, “Bizarrely I don’t normally check the numbers until I get the local paper each week, but for this draw I was tidying up some paperwork while my son was doing his homework.

"Amongst the recycling and pizza offers I found the play slips and decided to check them there and then.

"I checked the two lines I play with my husband but there was nothing, then the slip with three lines on, again nothing but when I started on the final slip the numbers just kept coming.

"I wrote the numbers down in numerical order and saw three matched, then four, then five.

"When it started to dawn on me what was happening, I had to ask my son to read them all back to me.

"We both sat there completely stunned until I found my voice again and simply said, ‘we’ve won’.”

The tightknit group of friends celebrate the win over a bottle of champsgne, before Coris and her family had a celebratory meal a restaurant at Brighton Marina.

The life changing win will buy some members of the syndicate new homes and the chance to reduce their work.

But Coris' priority is a Jack Russell puppy for her son.

She said: "A trip to South Africa will also be on the cards for us. My husbands’ best friend lives in Cape Town and with the winnings, it would be rude not to visit sometime soon to enjoy some winter sun.”

The other syndicate members have a range of plans with the win.

Janice Ginn, 54, plans to finally buy a house after years of renting.

Laura Busby, 33, is looking forward to a family holiday to Florida.

Carol Beal, 54, will be taking her granddaughter to DisneyWorld.

Gary Beal, 32, who is Carol’s son, will be able to get on the property ladder.

As one member said; “Leaving the children at the school will be hard so maybe we will continue to be Lotto winning dinner ladies!”