A British engineer who thinks he lost a winning Euromillions lottery ticket says his life has been destroyed. Ian Galtress bought two tickets for the draw at the same time, and one was one digit off matching a raffle code that would have won £1 million (about US$1.65 million).

Ian Galtress thinks he is the missing Euromillions winner who lost his ticket (could it be behind him?) Photo:Andrew Teebay

After losing the other ticket - and then watching in horror as organisers Camelot appealed for a missing winner in his hometown - he has become overrun with anxiety over what he could have lost, reports the Liverpool Echo.

The Whitehouse family were among some of the many Euromillions Raffle winners last year.

To win a Euromillions Raffle draw, entrants have to defy estimated odds of 9.2million-to-one by matching a randomly generated code at the bottom of each Euromillions ticket. The winner is guaranteed £1 million, regardless of whether they win or lose in the main draw.

Unlucky Ian, 41, knows the ticket he bought for the July 27, 2012 draw and gave to his girlfriend was just the final digit away from scooping the prize.

Millions of dollars worth of prizes go unclaimed each year because winning tickets are lost or forgotten. Photo: Sunderland Echo

Believing the numbers are sequential - meaning there is a chance his number was just a single digit off his girlfriend's - he has spent the last 20 months living with the fact he may have thrown away £1 million.

The 41-year-old told the Echo: "It's ruined my life. I've lost lots of weight. I'm not sleeping because of the anxiety in me."

After you buy your tickets, store them securely until the draw - and afterwards too.

Our tip: Keep all lottery tickets until you are quite sure that they have not won a prize. And be organised to keep your sanity... put them in an envelope labeled with the year on the front - or month if you buy frequently - and keep them in a safe place.

We suggest you don't spend time worrying over lost tickets if you've done everything you can to find them. Move on - there's plenty of opportunity every game.