Mum gets £500,000 property mortgage-free after being 'basically homeless'

A single mum has bagged £500,000 to put towards a mortgage-free home after buying a raffle ticket on a whim.

When Angelika Wisniewska purchased her £5 ticket in a property raffle, she didn’t have high hopes of actually winning.

But now the 34-year-old is the proud owner of a five-bed house in Carlisle – saying she finally has the freedom she’s always craved.

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Angelika decided to enter the Tramway Path prize draw after seeing other people win homes through the London-based property business.

She spotted the draw in a Facebook ad while travelling home from the dentist with her children Cornelia, 10, and Ella, eight and bought a ticket on a whim.

“I’ve never won anything [before] – maybe a pound in a scratch card,” the mum, who is originally from Poland but has been living in the UK for the past decade, said. “We were joking that one day we were going to win a big, big jackpot.”

Speaking about her family’s living situation before the win, hairdresser Angelika said she was forced to move in with her sister following relationship breakdown. “I was basically homeless,“ she added.

“I registered myself as a homeless person to the government and within a couple of months they offered me a house where I could live with the kids. It’s just the council house, [they] are not the best.

"The whole – over two years – journey of refurbishing the whole place took a lot out of me.”

The mum entered the raffle towards the end of last year, purchasing a £5 ticket online, and was stunned to win the huge prize draw.

Tramway Path has previously given away a £450,000 four-bed detached home in the Swinton area of Salford as well as several other homes across the