THE winners of a County Durham home that was raffled off for just £1 a ticket have described the life-changing moment they discovered they had won.

Courtney Morgan 21, and Morgan Tandy, 23, are set to get the keys to a three-storey home in Bishop Auckland after striking lucky in an online competition.

The Northern Echo first revealed that Richard and India Taylor had launched the competition after efforts to sell were hampered following the Covid outbreak.

At the time Mr and Mrs Taylor, parents to Lucas and Eli, said they were attempting the raffle, despite being called "crazy", in a bid to fulfil their “dream move” to Australia.

READ MORE: County Durham couple raffling three-storey home and BMW for £1 a ticket

After launching the competition in July, the winner was drawn weeks ahead of schedule on September 4 after managing to reach their target of 300,000 tickets.

Speaking to The Echo, Ms Morgan of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales said she “could not believe” it when she discovered the win.

The Northern Echo: Courtney Morgan and Morgan Tandy Picture: SARAH CALDECOTTCourtney Morgan and Morgan Tandy Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT

The mother-of-one said: “At first I felt like completely scared – I actually applied and had completely forgotten about it.

“Then all of a sudden I was all over Facebook with people saying ‘can you find this girl’, random people were messaging me saying I was the winner.

“It was mad, I was like ‘I can’t deal with it’, I’ve won a house.”

The raffle proved so popular that on the day it was drawn, the website Raffall.com suffered from technical problems which meant two lots of winners for the house were shown.

READ MORE: County Durham couple who raffled home and BMW hit back after 'glitch' during draw

According to the raffle provider, this had been caused by the sheer number of people who had visited the website in order to check if they had won.

Ms Morgan, who is currently renting a flat from her parents, said the win had come as a "relief" as the family looked to use the win to "secure" their future.

She said: "We've contemplated what we are going to do with the house and whether we will move here, but it's nearly five hours away from my family.

"We've decided were going to sell the house and then buy a house closer to the family, which will help us settle down and secure the future for our little girl.

"I'm still super shocked, there's no words for it."

Yesterday, the official paperwork on the sale of the house was completed much to the relief of Mr and Mrs Taylor, who are almost set to make their move to Perth in Australia.

The Northern Echo:

They previously said raffling a home felt like a "full time job", given the time actually needed to sell as many tickets as possible.

But saying the challenge had well and truly paid off, Mrs Taylor said: "It's great news, it's kind of exciting.

"We're really pleased, and we're really pleased for Courtney and her family. It sounds like it will be a big relief.

"We're looking to get over to Perth as soon as possible, it's just a bit tricky with all the restrictions we have."

For now Mr and Mrs Taylor said they will be continuing to call County Durham home until Covid restrictions are lifted but vowed to fulfil the move.

Mrs Taylor said: "We're going to be staying here in the area until December until the caps start to be lifted – but we're really pleased with how things have gone.

"It's definitely a different way of doing things and it is proof it can be done," she added.