One of the winners of the $1.3 billion (£1 billion) Powerball jackpot has had cancer for eight years and wants to use the money to “find a good doctor”.
Father of two, Cheng “Charlie” Saephan of Portland, Oregonwas announced as the winner of the huge jackpot – the fourth biggest in lottery history – on Monday.
“I will be able to support my family and my health,” the 46-year-old said at a press conference.
“How will I have time to spend all this money? How long will I live?”
Saephan, 46, entered the lottery with her friend Laiza Chao, 55, who contributed US$100 (£80) so they could buy a batch of shared tickets.
After they purchased the tickets, Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Saephan and jokingly said, “We are billionaires.”
The next day, they won.
Saephan broke the news to Chao while she was traveling to work, telling her over the phone, “You don’t have to go anymore.”
In the weeks leading up to the draw, Saephan said he wrote the game numbers on a piece of paper and slept with it under his pillow.
Photo: AP
He prayed he would win, saying, “I need help – I don’t want to die yet unless I’ve done something for my family first.”
Saephan and his wife, Duanpen, 37, will receive half the money and the rest will go to Chao.
They are receiving a lump sum payment of $422m (£336m) after tax.
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Saephan, a machinist for an aerospace company, said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987 before immigrating to the US in 1994.
He wore a banner 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 helped American forces during the Vietnam War.
After the conflict, thousands of Iu Mien families fled to Thailand to avoid reprisals and eventually settled in the US, with a sizable and active community in Portland.
The winning ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a Powerball winning streak that spanned 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 biggest US lottery jackpot was $2.04 billion (£1.69 billion) in California in 2022.
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