Australian belatedly wins $10 million lottery

An Australian student worried about her parents' money problems rifled through a pile of her lottery tickets Thursday and discovered that she had won 13 million Australian dollars ($10 million) 10 months ago, a state lottery agency said.

The student, living in the west coast city of Perth, received the winning ticket for a draw on July 22 last year as a gift from her father, Western Australia state agency Lotterywest said.

She had been unaware that it would have expired after 12 months, it said in a statement.

"I woke up this morning worried about our finances. Something made me think to check the tickets and I thought that if I win something, then I could help mom and dad out," Lotterywest quoted her as saying. She declined to be identified by name.

"The people close to me will be looked after and I might give some to research or a charity of some kind. It's nice to have this much to fulfill my dreams and the dreams of the people around me," she told the agency.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090528/ap_on_fe_st/as_odd_australia_late_lo...