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Have you ever wondered what it really feels like to win a multi-million-dollar jackpot? On Thursday night, one player may be finding out for themselves if they take home division one in this week’s $3 million Powerball draw.
But to give you an idea in the meantime, The Lott sat down with Australia’s biggest individual lottery winner to discover what was going through her mind in the moments and days after she won a record-breaking $107 million Powerball prize in January 2019.
The Sydney nurse has already shared how she’s been enjoying her prize and what it was like to break the news to her family. Now she’s relived the moment she learnt she’d won the massive jackpot.
On the night of the historic draw, when contacted by an official from The Lott, she thought she’d won $107,000, not $107 million.
“Just like everyone else, I bought my entry before the game, went back to doing what I was doing and totally forgot about it,” she explained.
“It wasn’t on my radar at all because it just doesn’t happen – people like me don’t win, and I still don’t think it’s truly sunk in yet!
“To begin with, I was caught up with the rest of Australia. I was just as excited for myself as everyone else was for the winner.
“It was like I could look at myself from the outside and think, ‘Wow, that’s so exciting, I wonder what she’s going to do with it?’.
“I still remember watching the story unfold on national television. It was exciting to read about it and see that so many people were happy for me.
“I appreciated the well wishes and excitement that was coming from the entire country.”
The New South Wales mum in her 40s earlier revealed that she’s still working and explained her life didn’t change drastically overnight.
“I got up the next morning and took the kids to school and had jobs to do and commitments I had to follow through with,” she said.
“People needed me to be the person I always was.
“I suppose you get to a certain age and you’re already the person you are and you’re set in a certain way. When you’ve had these certain habits your whole life, you don’t just change them overnight or at least I chose not to.”
Like so many people across the country, the hardworking and humble nurse said she’d always dreamt of one day winning the lottery.
“When I used to hear about people winning the lottery, my husband and I would always feel so happy for them.” she recalled.
“We’d always say ‘could you imagine! Just one million dollars would be lovely!’.
“I always used to tell people at the hospital to go buy a lottery ticket if they were feeling down, explaining to them that it gives you some optimism that maybe in the morning you’ll wake up and everything has changed., It’s something to hold onto.
“And that’s exactly what happened to me!”
Powerball draw 1312 closes at 7:30pm AEST on Thursday 8 July 2021.
Tickets can be purchased at any licensed lottery outlet, online from thelott.com or via The Lott mobile app.
In 2020, 14 Powerball division one winners across Australia pocketed more than $470.1 million in prize money.
Of the 14 Powerball division one winning entries in 2020, six landed in Queensland, five in New South Wales and three in Victoria.
The home of Australia’s Official Lotteries, The Lott operates and markets Australia’s leading lottery games customers know and love creating everyday winners, winning every day.
In 2020, more than 111.6 million winners took home more than $3.33 billion in prize money from their favourite games at The Lott, including Saturday Lotto, Monday & Wednesday Lotto, Powerball, Oz Lotto, Set for Life, Lucky Lotteries, Keno, Super 66, Lotto Strike and Instant Scratch-Its.
Last financial year, Australia’s Official Lotteries contributed more than $1.4 billion via state lottery taxes and donations to help community initiatives, such as hospitals, health research, disaster relief and education.
