A woman won £250,000 after buying a £2 scratchcard to get change for a parking meter.

Call centre worker Marilyn Scott from Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, said she could not believe her eyes when she remembered to check it the next day.

The 27-year-old is now planning a "trip of a lifetime" when she visits a friend in Australia.

Ms Scott bought the purple scratchcard from a newsagent in her hometown to break a £10 note for the parking meter and left it in her handbag until she was heading to work the next morning.

The former hairdresser was "on cloud nine" after discovering she had bought a winner.

She said: "When I saw it in my handbag I actually thought to myself 'I could have been sitting here all day yesterday a winner'. Little did I know that I was right.

"Once I'd scratched it I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to ask a couple of my colleagues to check if it was real and thought there might be a misprint."

An excited Marilyn then had an anxious wait to get her big win confirmed.

She said: "I was flapping about the office by this point and they told me to go back to the shop to find out.

"The newsagent told me I'd have to phone Camelot but it was only 8am and the phone line didn't open until 9am.

"Everyone in the office was touching my lucky scratchcard and I was floating about on cloud nine."

The lucky punter was sent home by bosses to make the call and cancelled her planned overtime and weekend work, saying she would not "be in any state to work" as she was "so excited".

As well as travelling, Marilyn may use the cash to retrain as a hairdresser, open her own shop and buy a house.

It appears she has a lucky streak as she has also won several other prizes in recent years.

She said: "Once I'd made the call to Camelot I was jumping about the house with my mum. I phoned my stepdad, my two sisters and a couple of my closest friends.

"Mum had to head out to work but I was still bouncing around.

"Most of the people I told said 'That's just your luck, Marilyn' because I win things quite a lot. I won £1000 a few years ago when I texted in to a local radio station competition.

"And at work recently there was a raffle for the top-performing staff and I won £1000 of travel vouchers."

The winnings will help Marilyn make the most of a long-held ambition to travel Down Under to meet up with an old friend who lives there.

She said: "My friend lives in Australia and she has been asking me to go over to see her for years.

"When I won the vouchers I thought now is my chance and booked flights. I have a working and travelling visa so I intended to stay a while but now it really is going to be the trip of a lifetime."