A man from London reckons he might be the 'unluckiest lad in Britain' after narrowly missing out on winning the EuroMillions jackpot.
Rossi Carmina bought a ticket on 3 January after a pal noted that he 'seemed a lucky person', and sure enough, when he checked his numbers on The National Lottery app he found that every number matched.
But to his horror, the 23-year-old realised he had inadvertently entered the 7 January EuroMillions draw four days in advance, rather than the next day's draw that matched his numbers - meaning his 'winning' ticket was actually worthless.
A 'sickening' app screengrab shows the winning digits for 4 January's draw - 18, 28, 35, 36, 41, 06 and 11 - directly below Rossi's identical saved numbers.
If he'd bought a ticket for the following day's draw as intended, instead of entering the 7 January rollover, he'd be £14,189,900 ($19,404,120) richer. As it happened, he was left with nothing.
So close, yet so far away.
Freelance artist Rossi, from Bromley, said: "It's lucky to have the chance for the numbers to match but to not buy the ticket is the complete opposite. You feel like the most unlucky person in Britain at the time.
"It hit home in the next two days. I was contemplating all the things I could have done.
"I could buy my mum a new home and buy a Ferrari. It's hard not to think about. I'd have been set for life."
Yeah, that really is a lot to come to terms with. Rossi is now trying to convince himself that it may have been fate.
He said: "If I bought it on the 5th instead of the 7th I would have matched it perfectly. If I bought the right ticket, I would have won £14 million just a few days after my friend said I was lucky.
"I've tried to forget about it because I think that's the best way to go about it. I don't want to live my life thinking about what could have been.
"There's been so many comments saying 'I couldn't live with myself', but I'm alright. It's happened, what can I do. It might have been fate."
He added that the 'crazy coincidence' has made it hard to concentrate on his uni deadline this month, but he said he hasn't been put off entering the lottery in future and will still buy a ticket 'every so often'.
Just make sure you double check the date first, alright mate?
Topics: Euromillions
Jake Massey