One of the winners of the $1.3 billion (£1 billion) Powerball jackpot has been suffering from cancer for eight years and wants to use the money to “find a good doctor”.
Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, a father of two from Portland, Oregonwas announced Monday as the winner of the huge jackpot – the fourth largest in lottery history.
“I will be able to provide for my family and my health,” the 46-year-old said at a press conference.
“How am I going to have time to spend all this money? How long am I going to live?”
Mr Saephan, 46, entered the lottery with his friend Laiza Chao, 55, who contributed $100 (£80) for them to buy a shared set of tickets.
After purchasing the tickets, Ms. Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Mr. Saephan and jokingly said, “We are billionaires.”
The next day they won.
Mr. Saephan broke the news to Ms. Chao on her way to work, telling her over the phone: “You don’t have to go anymore.
In the weeks leading up to the drawing, Mr. Saephan said he wrote the game’s numbers on a piece of paper and slept with it under his pillow.
Photo: AP
He prayed to win, saying, “I need help – I don’t want to die again unless I do something for my family first.” »
Mr. Saephan and his wife Duanpen, 37, receive half of the money and the rest goes to Ms. Chao.
They receive a lump sum payment of $422m (£336m) after tax.
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Mr. Saephan, a machinist for an aerospace company, said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the United States in 1994.
He wore a scarf at the news conference identifying himself as Iu Mien, a Southeast Asian ethnic group with roots in southern China.
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Many Iu Mein were subsistence farmers and aided American forces during the Vietnam War.
After the conflict, thousands of Iu Mien families fled to Thailand to escape reprisals and eventually settled in the United States, with a large and active community in Portland.
The winning ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a Powerball winless streak that lasted more than three months.
Photo: AP
The $1.3 billion (£1 billion) prize is the fourth largest Powerball jackpot in history and the eighth largest among US jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.
The largest US lottery jackpot won was $2.04 billion (£1.69 billion) in California in 2022.
