`Independent' travel winner goes east

BMichelle Perrett, a 28-year-old banker from London, has won the Independent's Discover Free Travel competition.

Mrs Perrett, who lives in Norbury and works for HSBC, has won a £4,000 holiday for two every year for five years. She can choose any holiday from the British Airways Holiday World-wide programme.

"I would like to go to the Far East, as I've never been able to afford it so far," said Mrs Perrett, who has always enjoyed travelling.

"I'd like the opportunity to see different cultures and different ways of life."

Mrs Perrett had already booked a holiday in Cyprus this summer, but said: "I might well be cancelling it now."

Her winning tie-breaker was: "Whenever I travel I always take...as much as my husband can carry."

"It's just the truth," Mrs Perrett, an Independent reader for five years, said. "My husband always gets unhappy because I try to pack too much at the last moment. He's always aghast at the amount I have to take." Her husband, John, a 32-year-old plumber, wants to spend the money visiting friends in New Zealand. Mrs Perrett says she has promised to take him every year.

No final decisions have been taken at the moment. "I just can't believe it, it was such a shock. It's wonderful," she said.