How you can WIN an absolute 'gem' of a prize - just like Lisa!

Lucky prize winner Lisa Hawkins from Crawley now has her own beautiful bespoke diamond ring, worth £600!

Imagine picking up the phone and hearing a voice at the other end of the line telling you that you have just won a 0.3 carat diamond – which you can have made into a bespoke piece of jewellery. Perhaps you’d choose a ring, a pendant or cufflinks?

If you receive our free weekly comping email; 'The Winning Wire' * you'll remember me telling you about the chance to win this 0.3 carat diamond through a competition on the Bramwell's of London website  (www.bramwellsoflondon.co.uk) –  it was a simple prize draw closing on 31 May 2006.

And, out of the 9,000 entries to the competition, Lisa Hawkins, a mum from Crawley, got the winning phone call that left her absolutely gob-smacked!

For Lisa, going to pick up her ring from Hatton Gardens – the prestigious Jewellery Quarter of London – was a prize in itself, as she hadn’t been to London for 20 years. It’s great how comping can lead to new adventures!

Lisa is a crossword and puzzle addict – and enters probably about 35 competitions a week, mainly on the Internet. She also likes playing poker with friends, and when she’s not at work, or looking after her 13 year old son, she’s relaxing over a sudoku puzzle or looking for more competitions and prize draws.

“I saw this competition on the website and entered,” Lisa told me, what had she got to lose? “I then completely forgot about it until I got the call from Stuart Stow at Bramwells to say I’d won”.

And I think that’s the best way to comp! If you enter 30 comps a week and then forget about them – concentrating on your next set of entries – you will never be disappointed if you don’t win a specific competition, and will be delighted when you get a surprise winning letter or call!

It’s the reverse of playing the National Lottery; every week, when your numbers don’t come up, you feel disappointed. But with comping, you can feel positive all the time; imagining what prizes are around the corner!

Lisa picked up her gorgeous ring from Bramwell’s diamond studio in Hatton Gardens, London, meeting not only the company director, Stuart Stow, but also Aggi; the designer who cut, polished and set the ‘round brilliant’ shaped diamond into an 18 karat gold ring for her.

“Learning about the different shapes, colours and weights of diamonds has been amazing” Lisa gushed, over lunch. “Before today I don’t think I would be able to tell the difference between a real diamond and a fake one, now I know what I’m looking for!” Lisa certainly has developed a taste for fine jewellery; and she had her eye on a beautiful necklace in the studio all day. Stuart, the competition promoter and director of Bramwells – was more than generous and gave her a necklace as well as her diamond ring!

Lisa’s ring is worth £600. And with a delicious lunch in Hatton Gardens, tour of the diamond cutting workshops and studios, a beautiful necklace, champagne and a fantastic afternoon in London – Lisa agreed it was a money-can’t-buy prize, she’ll never forget!