OfficialMelissaUK/FacebookA 58-year-old lottery winner has died just 18 months after scooping a £4 million jackpot.
Melissa Ede rose to notoriety after her big win, which came after she bought a £10 scratchcard. Melissa was a taxi driver in Hull, and had worked through the night on Christmas Eve, 2017, before deciding to buy the scratchcard.
The sad news of her sudden death was confirmed by her fiancee Rachel Nason.
PA ImagesRachel told Hull Live how Melissa died suddenly on Saturday, May 11, after experience ‘crushing chest pains’ and was ‘hardly able to breathe’.
She was taken to hospital but doctors said it had not been a heart attack, and that her lungs were fine.
Melissa’s family have said funeral arrangements are currently being made and details will be shared at a later date. They added the funeral will be a ‘fitting tribute to Melissa’.
PA ImagesPrior to becoming a multi-millionaire in an instant, Melissa was a taxi driver in Hull, and had worked from 8am to 4am on Boxing Day before buying the winning card.
Speaking to Hull Live at the time, Melissa said:
To go from having £5 in your bank account is unbelievable.
After splashing out and buying herself a house, a car and an aquarium, Melissa revealed she gave herself a monthly allowance of £6,500, and also invested a large portion of her winnings.
She said:
I could blow it all but where would that leave everybody else?
Out of my winnings, I’ve spent £800,000 – that includes the house, gifting, some donated to charity, cosmetic work and I’ve paid for my teeth.
We set aside £1 million and I invested £3 million of it, which is still invested.
One of the first things Melissa did with her winnings was to get her teeth fixed, as they had always been a source of discomfort for her, so they were top of the list of things she wanted to address.
She told the Mirror at the time:
I don’t like to smile because they are so manky. I’ve decided to show everyone my horrible teeth now – because come January nobody is going to recognise me. It’s going to be a big, perfect smile.
I’m going to have implants, the dentist is planning to pull out 15 teeth and eight roots. I was going to go for the bright, bright white Rylan-style teeth but I’ve gone against that.
I’ve gone with the dentist’s advice, what she feels will look best on me.
Melissa’s exact cause of death has not yet been established, according to reports.
Our thoughts are with her family and friends.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.