Cancer patient wins Oregon lottery jackpot

SALEM, Oregon, United States.— One of the winners of the $1.3 billion prize from the “Powerball” lottery from last month is an immigrant from Laos who suffers from cancer for eight years and He underwent his last chemotherapy treatment last week.

Cheng Saephan, de Portlandhe said at a press conference held by the Oregon Lottery that he and his wife, Duanpen, would split the prize equally with a friend who contributed $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them, Laiza Chao.

They will collect it in a single payment, which will be $422 million following taxes.

“I will be able to support my family and my health,” he said, adding that he would “find a good doctor for me.”

He also said that, being sick with cancer, he asked himself: “How am I going to have time to spend all this money? How long will I live?”

After buying the tickets, Chao sent a photo of them to Saephan and said: “We are billionaires.”

It was a joke before the draw, he recalled, but the next day it became a reality.

Three months without a winner

The winning “Powerball” ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry grocery store in Portland, ending a streak of three months in which there was no winner.

According to Oregon Lotterythe prize of 1.3 billion dollars It is the fourth largest “Powerball” event in history and the eighth largest in the United States.

The largest lottery prize won in the United States was 2.04 billion in California in 2022.

Just at the beginning of April, a ticket purchased in Oregon won the cumulative 1.326 million. Months earlier, on January 1, a single ticket, sold in Michigantook home the 842.4 million from the first draw of the year.

In 2023, the “Powerball” jackpot was won 6 times. The last one was on October 11, with a pot of 1.765 million that was for a ticket stamped in California.