Iris celebrates with husband Robert in Belfast. (Reuters)

Belfast, Aug. 6 (Reuters): A 58-year-old cancer sufferer from Northern Ireland was unveiled today as the biggest single winner in the 10-year history of Britain’s National Lottery with a £20.1-million ($37 million) jackpot.

Iris Jeffrey, a mother of two from north Belfast, bought the winning ticket on July 14, but did not realise she was sitting on the windfall till lottery organisers made an appeal for the missing winner to come forward earlier this week.

“I watched the news on television and it came out with the numbers on the screen. I wrote them down to check them later on, and forgot about the ticket,” she told a news conference. “I didn’t believe it actually, my daughters checked the ticket for me.”

The record winner said she intended to spoil herself by buying a washing machine and plans a holiday in Las Vegas with husband Robert, 62.

She also spoke about how she was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and expected to undergo surgery. “I’m being treated for cancer at the moment, cancer of the gullet (oesophagus), I just found out in April about it. I’m undergoing chemotherapy and I will be having a major operation, hopefully next month.”