A MOTHER-of-four won £1.2m on the National Lottery after getting a “sign” from her dead father in the form of mysterious white feathers.

Susan Crossland, 44, said she and her Mirfield milkman husband Michael, 39, nearly missed the six numbers which scooped her £1,218,618 at the weekend because they were celebrating winning £74 on three other lines on their Lotto card.

But Mrs Crossland, of Ravensthorpe, burst into tears when she described how she believes a shower of white feathers a week before her win was a “gift” from her late father, predicting something good was going to happen to her.

Mr Crossland said his wife found a single white feather on the doorstep following her father’s death two years ago and had kept it.

In the days leading up to her lucky day and her 44th birthday on Friday they began to find white feathers all over the place.

The couple also won on the set of numbers her father used to play the lottery with.

Mrs Crossland said: “My win must have been fate, which is why I saw the feathers and won on his number line.”

Her husband said: “A week before the lottery win there were white feathers dropping into the garden and all around.

“She thought it was because of her dad and because it was near to her birthday.

“There was another white feather and then another white feather and then, obviously, it was the jackpot.”

Mr Crossland said the origin of the feathers was still a mystery, “because I can’t see birds landing in the garden, what with us having dogs”.

He described how they nearly missed the vital six numbers on the bottom of their five lines.

He said that in the previous four lines they had checked they had already won £10 and then got two consecutive lines of four correct numbers which netted them £32 for each.

“We had already started to celebrate these four numbers and were checking how much we had won and so we nearly missed the last line with the six numbers,” he said.

The couple said they were still coming to terms with their win and have no plans to change their lives apart from buying a new house.

Asked about what they did on Monday morning Mrs Crossland said: “He went to work and I went to the Netto store.”

Her husband said he has no plans to give up work at Kershaw’s Dairy in Mirfield, despite the 3.30am starts.

He said: “It’s a nice job, nice people I work with. There’s five of us and we’re just a good set of lads working together.”

The couple, who faced the cameras at Dewsbury Golf Club in Mirfield, said the money would help with their plans to start fostering children once they have moved into a new house.

Mrs Crossland said the move was already planned, but the cash would make it happen more quickly.

She said it would also help bring up her four children. She did not want to give out any further details about her family.

Mrs Crossland’s winning numbers were 6, 9, 13, 18, 29 and 30.