A care worker took a woman she was looking after to play bingo – and went home with a jackpot of more than £300,000.

The 42-year-old winner, who wants to remain anonymous, struck it lucky at a Gala Bingo Hall in Brighton when a ticket costing £2.50 made her the club’s biggest-ever winner.

She had only ever played bingo twice before.

A similar fortune was shared between hundreds of other people because under the rules of the High 5 game she was playing half the winnings must be shared between everyone in the hall playing the same game.

Of the 320 people in the hall in Freshfield Way on Wednesday, 239 were playing Gala High 5 and walked away with £1,265 each.

Assistant manager Paul Morgan, 30, said: “It was actually quite amazing. Everything went quiet for a minute and then the whole place erupted.

“The winner was sitting right at the back of the hall and she couldn’t move from her seat for about 20 minutes.

“She was trembling and couldn’t talk. We tried to give her a drink but she couldn’t pick up the glass.

“She later told us this was only the third time she had ever played bingo.”

The winner was only at the hall at 2.30pm because she had taken one of the people she looks after to play the game.

Bingo assistant Shaun Willis said: “It was brilliant because she didn’t even want to play originally. They kept saying she should play so eventually she did.

“I sat with her for a while after it was called and she was just shaking. She couldn’t dial any numbers on her phone so I had to dial her work and family.”

The Gala High 5 game has a rolling prize which was just over £700,000 on Wednesday. A player can win by calling “house” on the number 5 or a smaller prize is available if they call it on a number ending in 5.

Betty Mitchell, 76, of Sadler Way, Brighton, walked away with a £1,265 share.

She said: “It was marvellous.

We all clapped and cheered.

There wasn’t a chance to thank her. I’ll share the money with my family.”

Dorothy Emburey, 67, from Warren Crescent in Littlehampton, said: “We do a tour of the bingo halls and we haven’t seen a win like this. I’m very grateful to the lady who won.