COVID-19 Nurse Wins $1m Lottery Prize

Life has been incredibly difficult for nurses that work in COVID-10 units. Everything has changed for Nurse Terry Watkins from Durham in North Carolina, USA after she won a $1m lottery jackpot. All she has to do now is convince herself it’s actually happened. Her success came in the Supreme Riches second-chance lottery. When a lottery official phoned her with the incredible news, she wasn’t quite sure whether to believe it. “I thought that it was a scam, I was a little bit upset actually!” said the nurse in a press release issued by the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Is this real?

Her opinion was that the news just couldn’t be real. In fact, even after discovering that she had really won a $1m lottery prize, she still doesn’t quite believe her luck. “I’m still in some shock here,” she commented.

There had been over 513,000 entries into the Supreme Riches second-chance lottery that was held on Wednesday 13 January. The lucky nurse beat the odds though and won this fantastic prize.

Some players take a while to collect their lottery winnings. Not this one though and just a day after her win, Terry went to the lottery headquarters in Raleigh to claim her great prize. It’s all a very long way from her seemingly endless hours working with COVID-19 patients at a local nursing home.

A Blessing

The lucky player says that “just seeing some of the things that I’ve had to see, I am very grateful” for her win. “I had been praying for something to help me with this situation. It really is a great thing. I'm very blessed,” she added.

Watkins chose to accept her winnings as a on-off lump sum of $500,00 and after taxes will receive $424,500. Still a bit shocked at winning the prize, she is yet to decide how to spend her winnings. A common experience of course for lottery winners. “I’m just gonna take it slow and easy and figure out what I’m gonna do,” she said. However, she did let slip that she’d “love a new home.”