Barbara Sentance, who lives in a manufactured home in Laurieton, couldn't believe it when she got a call on Monday morning from Network Seven's Sunrise program telling her she had won.

"I've been doing it [registering to win] ever since it [the Cash Cow promotion] started," the 74-year-old said.

Barbara would call the number provided and enter the code word two or three times a week.

"I watch it [Sunrise] every day when I'm home, I like everything about it," she said of her favourite program.

But when the phone rang at 7.15am on Monday, she didn't have the television on and thought it was her daughter calling.

"They said 'you've won' and all I could say was 'no I haven't, I haven't', so they told me to quickly turn the TV on.

"I saw my name and went berserk. I was absolutely over the moon. I haven't had a good year. I had a bad fall in April." 

Barbara said she struggles and is not a lucky person, and has a "rotten cold" at the moment.

"My temperature was 110 all day after that. I shook for about two hours because they told me they would ring back but they didn't until about 10.30am."

She was quickly on the phone to call her three daughters, then her sister and a very good girlfriend.

"They were beside themselves for me."

There were a few congratulatory calls from people who know her and had see her name on their TV screens, but she has no family living in the region and no one in the caravan park knows of her win - until now.

Barbara has been a member of Red Cross for 38 years and when Port News called she was about to head off to run the bingo in that capacity before delivering for Meals on Wheels.

When the cheque arrives in about a month she will pay off her second-hand Toyota Echo which she borrowed money to buy.

"It will be lovely to be debt free," she said.

A holiday is also on her bucket list for next year.

"I'm not going to be silly, I will keep some back-up money.

"But I'd love to go to Hawaii and cruise around the islands, or maybe to Vanuatu. I'll have to get a girlfriend to go with me because I wouldn't travel on my own."

Barbara said she has never really won anything and is "still coming to terms with it".

"You can't imagine what a life difference it will make."