A WINNING lottery ticket was purchased in the North East - and the very person who has claimed it has revealed what he will spend it on.

The lucky man managed to match the five main numbers and one Lucky Star number in the draw on Friday, May 20.

Known only as Mr R from Cleveland, the man is taking home a grand total of £165,376.40 after the company verified his ticket.

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He is one of more than eight million players that manage to win The National Lottery's range of games, with winners given the opportunity to release their name.

In this case, the winner has chosen to release some details through partial publicity, but his identity will largely remain a mystery.

He plans to spend the cash on paying off his mortgage.

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Andy Carter, Senior Winners’ Advisor at The National Lottery, said: “What brilliant news for Mr. R for winning this fantastic prize, he can now look forward to living the dream life of being mortgage-free thanks to his win.”

By playing any National Lottery game, players generate more than £30m each week for National Lottery-funded projects.

This money helps support everything from the local charity to helping the nation’s athletes win Olympic and Paralympic gold medals.

To date, more than £45b has been raised and distributed to National Lottery Good Causes through more than 660,000 individual grants.

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