A ST Albans mum who was made redundant late last year has had a sudden turn of fortune after snapping up �20,000 in television show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Melanie Bundock, of Wood End, Park Street, said she was “just gobsmacked” after her win on the long-running ITV show, currently showing on television.

And the big win was largely thanks to her ‘lifeline’ husband David who came to her rescue when she was stumped on the �20,000 question: “What is the nickname of the Australian Cricket Team?” Answer: the “Baggy Greens.”

The win has been a high point for the mum-of-two who was made redundant from her recruitment job late last year. Although she had applied to appear on the popular show about a year ago, she wasn’t contacted by producers until January this year to audition for the 12th series, filmed in February.

She said the win “came at a good time.”

Some of her winnings have been used to buy a new family car and set up her own home-based complementary therapy business “TherapHealing” as Melanie is now a complementary therapist and qualified reflexologist.

She described the build up to being filmed in February for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as “quite nerve-wracking” and went on: “I didn’t know what to expect but when I was there, it was terrific.”

When she won the �20,000 question, she added, “it was all very surreal.”

Melanie has always watched the show and applied for an audition as she thought: “I could do that. I wouldn’t call myself a brainbox but I just know lots of random, useless facts.”

Being grilled by host Chris Tarrant didn’t faze Melanie: “He’s a really nice man,” she said.

According to ITV there is more pressure on contestants in the 2010 series as the first two questions have a 15-second limit, then the following questions, up to and including the �50,000 question, have a 30-second limit.