FOR more than 30 years, Alfreda Booth, of Blackburn, was not allowed to enter Lancashire Evening Telegraph competitions.

While her father, Alfred, worked as a linotype operator at the Evening Telegraph, she had to stick to the editor's rules that employees' relatives were banned from taking part in competitions.

But Alfreda, 80, who lives with husband, Norman, 79, has been a devoted competition entrant since the death of her dad in 1970.

And she got her reward when she scooped the Evening Telegraph/British Gas-organised contest to win a year's supply of electricity and gas, valued at £750, when readers had to collect 25 tokens from the newspaper before their names were put into a draw.

Mrs Booth, of Preston Old Road, said: "I was amazed and thrilled. We have got central heating and are delighted we will not have to worry about bills for a year."