Debbie King who runs a Burger van on Pasteur Road, Retail Park, Yarmouth won £6000 on a Lottery scratch card with her last pound.

PLUCKY Debbie King has always delivered service with a smile from her burger van on a busy retail park in Great Yarmouth.

But customers combing the sales and grabbing a bite to eat this week were handed an extra dollop of good cheer thanks to a “lifeline” lottery win.

For the 51-year-old from Lichfield Road, Southtown, is celebrating winning what for her is a life-changing £6,000 on a “third-time-lucky” scratchcard - enough to save her struggling business.

Self-employed Mrs King who has stood firm against a run a bad luck, was on the brink of shutting up her Sausage Stops at Pasteur Road, near Argos.

The collapse of Comet had hit her trade, she said and with her bills mounting in the face of her own health problems there was little hope on the horizon that things would get better.

But now the grateful grandmother has cleared her debts and is facing the new year with extra vigour and a positive frame of mind.

She purchased the scratchcard from the Jet garage in Southtown Road while out walking her dog at around teatime on December 21.

Having bought two that came to nothing, she went back for a third with only £1 in her pocket and a penny to scratch it with.

“When it happened I did not believe it, I was totally disbelieving and shaking. I went outside and told my dog but didn’t get much of a reaction.

“Business is really bad but I felt someone up there was looking after me. It is such a lifeline, I would have lost my business. Now I can get up to date with my bills, although there wont be much left.”

Mrs King, who lost her husband ten years ago to pneumonia aged just 40, has bought up two children and single-handedly put one through university. Her grandchildren Ben and Lucy Brown both suffer from extreme allergies and have featured in the Mercury.

She said her timely win was the result of a series of happy coincidences.

A self-confessed sweet addict she had only just turned to buying her favourite brand from the Jet garage where she could save £1.40 a week, helping to make every penny count.

Then, when she went back for a third go, she had just £1 and a penny in her pocket - a chance amount that proved her fortune. “Everything just fell into place,” she said.

Mrs King has been operating the Sausage Stops, known to most people as “Debbie’s”, for six years, seven days a week. She has had just two days off in the last year.