$1.3B Powerball Winner Has Been Fighting Cancer for Years

One of the winners of a historic $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot last month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week. Cheng "Charlie" Saephan, of Portland, told a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery that he and his wife, Duanpen, would split the prize evenly with a friend who chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them, Laiza Chao, the AP reports. They are taking a lump sum payment, $422 million after taxes.

"I will be able to provide for my family and my health," he said, adding that he'd "find a good doctor for myself." He said that as a cancer patient, he wondered: "How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?" After they bought the shared tickets, Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Saephan and said, "We're billionaires." It was a joke before the actual drawing, he said, but the next day it came true. The winning Powerball ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth largest among US jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.

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