A $250,000 lottery prize is providing a ray of light for a North Carolina man battling stage 4 cancer.
Richard Beare, of Charlotte, told the North Carolina Education Lottery that he rarely plays the lottery. But when Beare's wife asked him to buy a Powerball ticket two weeks ago when the jackpot "was so high," the retired mechanic decided to get some scratch-off tickets as well.
He asked the clerk for four Carolina Black tickets.
"The fourth one was the winner," Beare said in a news release from the state’s lottery. "When I saw that I had matching numbers, I asked her, 'What does it mean if I match the numbers?' She said it meant I won a prize. I told her, 'Well, I guess we just won $250,000 then.' She was in shock and just kept looking back and forth to me and the ticket."
For Beare, who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer, the cash prize is "such a relief." He told the N.C. lottery he is planning to travel the world.
"I want to travel while I can still enjoy myself," Beare said. "My wife has always wanted to go to Italy, since that’s where her descendants are from. Now I can take her."
According to the N.C. lottery, Beare took home $176,876 after state and federal tax withholdings.
U.S. & World
The $5 Carolina Black tickets launched in March with four top prizes of $250,000. The N.C. lottery said two prizes remain.
