A lucky nurse in the USA said she barely slept after a Powerball ticket turned her into a millionaire overnight.
Nurse Megan Balmer from the city of Garwin, Iowa State, USA, said she and her boyfriend Mike Ellis were so keyed up they spent almost the whole night awake after learning they had won USD 2 million (GBP 1.5 million).
The 36-year-old winner, who works for a healthcare company, reportedly bought the ticket just before the sale’s cut-off time at Casey’s in the town of Gladbrook on Monday, 10th July.
And she was stunned when she checked the results an hour later and found out she had matched numbers 2, 24, 34, 53 and 58, as well as Power Play number 2.
Megan said in a statement obtained by Newsflash from Iowa Lottery: “I had a ticket with multiple plays on it and I saw the numbers, and I double-checked on the website a couple times.
“And then I checked on the app and didn’t quite believe what I was seeing.
“Then we called my stepmom and we went and checked it at another Casey’s gas station and verified that it was a winner.”
In a race against time, the three then rushed to a local Casey’s store to scan the ticket once again hoping they would reach it until it closes.
Balmer said: “We were hurrying to get there and wanted to check it. Because I knew I wouldn’t sleep if I couldn’t know, not that I slept much anyway.”
Recalling the moments after the clerk confirmed the win, Ellis said: “I was jumping up and down, teary-eyed. I was just super excited.”
Megan added: “You were in tears, my stepmom was hugging you, I’m tearing up, I don’t even know if I was really listening to what the clerk was saying!
“Just the shock and disbelief, I guess. We couldn’t believe that something like that would happen to us.
“It’s not something that happens — ever — to us. We don’t ever have luck like that.”
The couple collected their prize at lottery headquarters while her sons were getting their entries to the Tama County Fair on Tuesday, 11th July.
Balmer hoped her sons will win the coming local fair and said: “They’re taking the livestock to the county fair.
“They’re taking his heifer, my oldest has a heifer, and my youngest is showing a chicken. It’s his first year at it.”
When asked about how she plans to spend the money, the 36-year-old woman said: “That’s a big goal of mine: to pay off the mortgage, my student loans from nursing school and credit card debt that I’d like to clear up.
“That’s huge. That’s such a relief to be able to say that I did those things.
“And I’ll save some for retirement and my kids for their college. That’s right around the corner, I’ll blink and it will be there.”
