To celebrate her birthday and completion of chemotherapy, a woman in Pennsylvania, USA, recently bought a lottery ticket and unexpectedly won a $5 million prize. As the saying goes, “after a storm comes a calm,” this windfall is definitely the best birthday gift for her.
According to reports from the Associated Press on June 28, the 75-year-old woman named Donna Osborne resides in Lancaster County. She purchased a scratch-off lottery ticket at a store in Leola.
Osborne told the lottery retailer that she had been undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. In order to celebrate the end of her chemotherapy and her upcoming birthday, she bought the lottery ticket at that store, almost missing the chance to visit the store.
She explained that she and her daughter were originally at the airport to board a flight to Florida to visit family, but the flight was delayed multiple times. Therefore, she decided to return home and bought the lottery ticket on the way, while her daughter stayed at the airport to catch the flight to Florida.
“If I hadn’t left the airport, I wouldn’t have bought that lottery ticket,” she said.
She mentioned that when she checked her win in the parking lot, she could hardly believe it. She purposely went back to the store to ask the clerk to check and confirm if she had won, and indeed she had.
She said that when she called her daughter in Florida, her daughter couldn’t believe the news of her winning.
Although she already has some ideas on how to use the money, she isn’t planning on retiring just yet. She still wants to keep active.
“Of course, I believe I will invest some of the winnings, but then I will head to Alaska,” she said.
Osborne almost missed the chance to win the jackpot, as if the prize was predestined, waiting for her to claim it. A similar case occurred in 2022, as previously reported by Da Ji Yuan, where a woman from Michigan followed a stranger’s advice to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket, assuring her that she would win. Surprisingly, just as predicted, she won a $4 million prize.