A woman who won a £2m Omaze home has revealed why she kept it - and has large family Christmas parties and regular visits from her kids' uni friends.
Eliza Yahioglu, 57, received the best birthday present when she discovered she'd scooped the picturesque farmhouse near Harrogate in Yorkshire.
She had the option to either live in the house, rent it out or sell the beautifully renovated 17th century hillside mansion.
But she "instantly fell in love with it" and decided she was going to keep it.
Eliza Yahioglu, 57, received the best birthday present when she discovered she'd scooped the picturesque farmhouse near Harrogate in Yorkshire.
She had the option to either live in the house, rent it out or sell the beautifully renovated 17th century hillside mansion.
But she "instantly fell in love with it" and decided she was going to keep it.
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NewsTranscript
00:00It feels like only yesterday when I was sat in the bar celebrating my birthday
00:15and my husband took the call from a mate, it's still sinking in. I'm constantly smiling.
00:19This house is amazing. The minute I walked over the threshold it went from being a house to a
00:25home. I still come down into the kitchen sometimes in the morning and go, this is my kitchen. I've
00:32absolutely loved returning home to my Yorkshire roots. My kids get the opportunity to get a real
00:37genuine connection to where I grew up, which really is great. The neighbours have been really
00:42friendly and we really do feel like part of the community here. But almost one of the best things
00:47is the local pub. Great landlord brings you back when you've had a slightly long lunch. It's been
00:53great sharing this wonderful space with family and friends but I really would like to share it
00:57with people being impacted by blood cancer and really giving them an opportunity to enjoy this
01:02space as much as I do and get some respite would be brilliant. When I was 12 I was diagnosed with
01:12the type of blood cancer called leukaemia. All the conventional treatments didn't work for me.
01:17Thankfully I was the first person in the world to receive a new type of groundbreaking treatment
01:22that new treatment was only made possible due to funding and that's why the money raised was so
01:28important. That money is now funding more vital research that is going to save more people like me.
01:33I can't believe it's already been a year since the AMAZE community raised an incredible £1.95
01:42million pounds and that's funded the Blood Cancer UK AMAZE research fund which is supporting six
01:50brilliant world-class research projects across the UK all of them finding new ways to treat
01:57blood cancer including children's blood cancers the most common of which is leukaemia. It's been
02:0325 years since we the Calendar Girls launched our calendar and raised a huge amount of money
02:11for Blood Cancer UK and it's brilliant that AMAZE partnership are part of this and raising lots of
02:18money to help people who get this terrible disease. When I meet people and they learn that
02:22I've won this amazing house everyone goes ah I thought it was a con I can show you it's not.
02:28If it can happen to me it can happen to anybody.