One of the three winners of the record-breaking $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot is a 46-year-old immigrant from Laos who has been battling cancer for the last eight years.
Speaking to the press at the Oregon Lottery headquarters in Salem on Monday, Cheng “Charlie” Saephan said he and his friend, Laiza Chao, 55, went in together on a batch of tickets that contained the winning numbers. Saephan and Chao will split the money, with Saephan sharing his half with his wife, Duanpen, 37.
They are taking a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, according to the Associated Press.
“I am grateful for the lottery and how I have been blessed,” Saephan said, thanking God for the “beautiful prize.” He said that he would use the money “to provide for my family,” including his two young children, and “find a good doctor for myself.” But his first purchase, he said, would be a house.
The 46-year-old, who came to the United States as a young man in 1994, is a longtime Portland resident and worked as a machinist in the aerospace industry before his diagnosis. His most recent round of chemotherapy took place earlier this month, he said. He added that, as a cancer patient, he’d wondered whether he would have time to spend all of his winnings.
Saephan explained that he was a regular lottery player. In the weeks before the Powerball winner was announced, he said he wrote the numbers of the game out on a piece of paper that he tucked under his pillow every night.
He prayed before the winning numbers were announced, he said: “I need some help—I don’t want to die yet unless I have done something for my family first.”
The jackpot won by Saephan and Chao is the fourth-largest in Powerball history. The winning ticket was purchased earlier this month at a Plaid Pantry store in Portland. The store will get a $100,000 bonus, according to The Oregonian.
