A WOMAN from Warrington has won a luxury six-bedroom country house at Melling in a £2 raffle.

Marie Segar is now the proud owner of Melling Manor, in the Lune Valley, and she will also receive the title of Lady Melling.

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Kendal-born Dunstan Low made headlines around the world after coming up with the idea of selling £2 raffle tickets, with his elegant, £845,000 Georgian family home as the prize.

After attracting half a million entries the winner was picked by random number generator on Tuesday afternoon. Dunstan announced the news on his Win a Country House website, describing it as "an incredible day".

"Obviously we cannot express how thankful and amazed we are at how the raffle went," he posted online. "This was not possible without your support from each and everyone of you."

Thousands of hopefuls from as far afield as New York's Bronx and New Zealand entered the raffle in a bid to win the Grade II-listed property, which dates back to 1792, complete with cinema room, ballroom, living room with chandelier, de luxe kitchen, six double bedrooms, vast family bathroom and sweeping gardens with horseshoe-shaped driveway.

Speaking to the Blackpool Gazette, Dunstan said Marie was in shock and had not even told anyone she had entered the competition.

The Sun described Marie, a finance worker, as "stunned" after learning of her success, and saying: "Are you kidding? I’m in shock. Oh my Lord. I’m speechless.

"I’ve never won anything before. This is completely surreal.

"I’ve only ever won £9 on the lottery."

The Sun said Marie had joked that she would be changing the name on her bank card to “Lady” Marie.

The Low family is to donate £30,000 to St John's Hospice at Lancaster, and £10,000 to the National Youth Advocacy Service, from proceeds of the raffle.

After renovating Melling Manor between 2011 and 2012, Dunstan struggled to pay the mortgage and tried but failed to sell the property through traditional routes.

To avoid repossession he decided to raffle the house by charging £2 per ticket, with the aim of selling 500,000 tickets to cover the original £845,000 asking price for the property when it was listed in December 2016, as well as stamp duty and legal fees.

Marie reportedly bought 20 tickets for the country house draw.

Dunstan posted on his website that he and his family were "so excited to hand the keys over" to the winner and to present their donations to charity. "It has been an incredible six months," he added. "Thank you everyone."

The Westmorland Gazette tried to contact Marie Segar via Facebook but had received no reply as the paper went to press.