A CARDIGAN woman won £40,000 from a £10 bet while she lay in a hospital bed on her 60th birthday.

The lucky lady punter is celebrating the life-changing win from bookmakers William Hill after placing the winning bet on six horses running at Kempton Park on Wednesday.

William Hill only managed to track her down after she left hospital on Saturday.

The lady, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “I placed the bet around midnight laying in my hospital bed on my 60th birthday.

“I’d been in there for about three weeks after breaking my left leg in two places.

“The signal in the hospital was pretty bad, so I didn’t find out I’d won until I received a phone call from William Hill.

“I can’t believe it and I’ve no idea how I’m going to spend the money!”

The lady, who worked as a shop manager in a betting shop for 16 years and is now medically retired, phoned her sister up to tell her about the big win: “I rang her up and said ‘guess how much I’ve won’ and she said ‘five grand’, ‘ten grand’ and I kept saying higher and higher. It was like Play Your Cards Right!”

“To be in hospital on a real low and come out and find out I’ve won this amount of money is unbelievable. It’s incredible.”

William Hill spokesman Jon Ivan-Duke said: “This was already a brilliant win, but to find out she’s placed the bet in hospital and won on her 60th birthday is just remarkable. Luck really does strike in mysterious ways.”

The lucky six horses and their odds were:

4.15 Kempton - Fruit Salad 5/4

4.45 Kempton – The Gay Cavalier 6/1

5.15 Kempton – Nouvelle Ere 25/1

6.45 Kempton – Fire Fighting 9/2

7.15 Kempton – Lancelot Du Lac 9/4

7.45 Kempton – Actonetaketwo 33/1