A North Carolina man stopped by a convenience store to buy a lottery ticket while on his way to his final chemotherapy appointment and wound up winning $200,000, BBC News reports. Unfortunately for the lucky winner, much of that money will have to go to medical bills.
Ronnie Foster had been battling colon cancer, one of the cancers that is most receptive to treatment, which in Foster’s case required multiple rounds of chemotherapy. And in fact, he was on his way to what was (hopefully) his last round of chemotherapy when, on a whim, he stopped by a convenience store and bought a scratch-off lottery ticket.
He won — five dollars, that is. However, like a lot of lottery players do, he sunk his winnings into two more tickets. The first one didn’t win anything. The second one, however, was a bit different.
“I saw all those zeros and froze,” he said.
Five zeros, to be specific, followed by a two. Or $200,000, if you don’t like visual riddles.
Foster said that what was already a big day for him was made even bigger by the six-digit win.
“Winning this made it my lucky day,” he said.
We’re out here at the #BBQFest36 and folks are spinning our BIG SPIN prize wheel for some great prizes! You can visit our booth today and if you buy a BIG SPIN scratch-off plus $5 in any lottery game you’ll have the chance to spin the wheel yourself. #LexingtonNC @barbecuefest pic.twitter.com/wE2kSev2iQ
— NC Education Lottery (@nclottery) October 26, 2019
When the dust has settled and Mr. Foster has deposited his check, he’ll be about $141,000 richer, considering that taxes will take a considerable chunk of his winnings. And though Foster is fortunate in that he has health insurance, as just about every American who has been through a major medical problem knows, insurance doesn’t cover everything. There are always bills left to pay. Foster says that some of his winnings will go towards covering outstanding medical bills, though he wouldn’t say how much precisely.
“This will make it a whole lot easier,” the lucky lottery winner remarked of his prize.
While lottery players all over the world dream of winning the big one, and indeed, winning the lottery can be a good thing regardless of when it happens, oftentimes a significant prize will coincide with something else that was happening in the winner’s life.
For example, as reported at the time by The Inquisitr , in May of this year, a North Carolina woman decided to spend $1 on a lottery ticket for a friend’s Mother’s Day gift. The purchase was made mostly as a joke. However, Vielka Roman wasn’t laughing when her numbers came up, in the most literal possible sense, when the drawing took place hours later. She won $1,354,174 before taxes.
