The win could not have come at a better time. Her 2016 was a terrible year; both her husband and mother died, her son required continuing medical treatment overseas, and she suffered serious illness herself.

Suzanne, who did not want her surname used, said she had always been slightly psychic. “I used to be able to win money for other people.” she said. 

She said she had dinner at the Narooma Sporting & Services Club a couple of times a week.

“I actually started taking Keno because I sit alone,” she said. “On Friday I was sitting at home – I never come down for lunch, I come for dinner –  and I just got this incredible urge to have lunch.”

She decided she would play while eating, using the children’s birthdays as her numbers. “I was eating my crumbed fish for lunch,” she said. “I knew it was going to happen, I just absolutely knew.”

Suzanne said she wouldn’t actually believe it until the money was in the bank, but that she was very relieved, having mortgaged her house to pay for medical treatment.

Although she is pragmatic about her prognosis, “basically, one day I am going to die, and so are you”, she said the horrors of 2016 had taken its toll.

Suzanne’s son has been seriously ill for four years and needed to travel to Germany for treatment. “If I can do something to help – employ a housekeeper, travel costs, some things like that for him –  that would be fantastic,” she said.

The money would also help her fund projects she was interested in. “I am really looking forward to going to Centrelink and saying ‘please take me off your books’.” The 70-year-old had long loved the Eurobodalla, retiring here five years ago.

Narooma Sporting & Services Club operation manager Brendan Matters said this was the first million-dollar-win in his club’s history. “Our club is ecstatic that such a well-liked local member has won it,” Mr Matters said. “It was wonderful to be involved.”