The lottery winners who beat the odds - twice

Winning the lottery would change your life: that one stroke of good fortune would transform your fortunes forever, so you would think that after a big win, most people would assume their lottery days were over forever. However, for some people, once isn't enough. After winning the lottery, they keep playing, and in the face of almost impossible odds - they win twice.

See also: The luckiest lottery numbers in the world

See also: Teen wins lottery twice in one week

Most recently it was a California teenager, Rosa Dominguez, who bought two $5 lottery scratch cards within a few days of each other, and scooped massive winnings from each. In total her winnings were worth £508,000. She bought both tickets at different petrol stations, and said she would use her prize money to buy a new car.

It seems unimaginably lucky, but it has happened before. In fact, it's far more common than you would think. Here are five of our favourite double-winners:

1. In May, a woman from Brisbane picked up £1.58 million in the Gold Lotto. She revealed at the time that she'd won £9,704 in the lottery just two days earlier.

2. In May, Gina Short of North Carolina celebrated her second win in the space of three months. She won £1 million back in February and £250,000 in May. She has been battling breast cancer for six years, so the money came in very handy.

It has happened in the UK too - a few times.

3. One of the most dramatic double wins was Mike McDermott, who won £194,501 in 2002 - and then £121,157 a few months later. Most impressively, he picked up the second win using the same numbers as the first. The boffins calculated that he had beaten odds of more than five trillion to one.

4. It also happened in 2015, when Jane and Alan Slater from the Isle of Wight won just under £150,000 - twice. In this case both of them had bought a ticket using the same numbers, for the same draw. Alan checked his ticket after coming in from a night shift, while Jane forgot hers and only realised she'd bought a second ticket for the draw when the dog dislodged a pile of papers in the car, and unearthed it.

5. But the biggest double win in the UK went to David and Kathleen Long from Scunthorpe (pictured), who won £1 million in 2013, and another £1 million in 2015. They beat odds of over 238 billion to one, by picking up special EuroMillions raffle prizes. At the time of the second win, the pair were still living in their static caravan in Scunthorpe, but had treated the family, bought a car, and even got married - after being engaged for 12 years.