Â鶹´«Ã½

Lifestyle

Winner of US$1.3 billion Powerball jackpot is an immigrant from Laos who has cancer

Cheng "Charlie" Saephan holds a check above his head after speaking during a news conference where it was revealed that he was one of the winners of the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot at the Oregon Lottery headquarters on Monday, April 29, 2024, in Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) Cheng "Charlie" Saephan holds a check above his head after speaking during a news conference where it was revealed that he was one of the winners of the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot at the Oregon Lottery headquarters on Monday, April 29, 2024, in Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Share
SALEM, Ore. -

One of the winners of a US$1.3 billion Powerball jackpot this month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.

Cheng "Charlie" Saephan, 46, of Portland, told a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery on Monday that he and his 37-year-old wife, Duanpen, are taking half the money, and the rest is going to a friend, Laiza Chao, 55, of the Portland suburb of Milwaukie. Chao had chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them. 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."

Saephan, who has two young children, 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 they won.

Chao, 55, was on her way to work when Saephan called her with the news: "You don't have to go anymore," he said.

Saephan said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. He wore a sash at the news conference identifying himself as Iu Mien, a southeast Asian ethnic group with roots in southern China. Many Iu Mein were subsistence farmers and assisted American forces during the Vietnam war; after the conflict, thousands of Iu Mien families fled to Thailand to avoid retribution and eventually settled in the U.S.

Tens of thousands of Iu Mien people live along the West Coast, with a sizeable and active community in Portland.

Saephan graduated from high school in 1996 and has lived in Portland for 30 years. He worked as a machinist for an aerospace company.

In the weeks leading up to the drawing, he wrote out numbers for the game on a piece of paper and slept with it under his pillow, he said. He prayed that he would win, saying, "I need some help -- I don't want to die yet unless I have done something for my family first."

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 Oregon Lottery said it had to go through a security and vetting process before announcing the identity of the person who came forward to claim the prize.

Under Oregon law, with few exceptions, lottery players cannot remain anonymous. Winners have a year to claim the top prize.

The jackpot had a cash value of $621 million before taxes if the winner chose to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes and state taxes in Oregon.

The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth largest among U.S. jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.

The biggest U.S. lottery jackpot won was $2.04 billion in California in 2022.

------

Johnson reported from Seattle.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

An organization that ranks the best universities across the globe says its latest report shows a concerning trend that several of Canada’s institutions are slipping down its list.

A British Columbia provincial court judge says a Boston Bar man who shot a teacup Chihuahua named Bear claiming it was menacing his chickens was not justified in killing the animal.

A man who showed up at a rental car company only to be told his online reservation would not be honoured is entitled to compensation, B.C.'s small claims tribunal has ruled.

Emotions boiled over after a judge acquitted two out of three defendants in a manslaughter case, while the third accused has since died.

On September 11, Madeleine Gervais was the victim of a theft in Ottawa's west end. It happened in the Loblaws parking lot in College Square, when she was approached by a man and a woman who insisted to help her load her groceries into her car.

Canada

  • An organization that ranks the best universities across the globe says its latest report shows a concerning trend that several of Canada’s institutions are slipping down its list.

  • On September 11, Madeleine Gervais was the victim of a theft in Ottawa's west end. It happened in the Loblaws parking lot in College Square, when she was approached by a man and a woman who insisted to help her load her groceries into her car.

  • Vancouver police say they are conducting an investigation into a pro-Palestinian protest where they say speakers expressed "solidarity with terrorist groups."

  • A British Columbia provincial court judge says a Boston Bar man who shot a teacup Chihuahua named Bear claiming it was menacing his chickens was not justified in killing the animal.

  • More than two weeks have passed since Hassan Ali walked out of a Toronto courtroom a free man, after prosecutors decided not to move forward with a first-degree murder trial against the local rapper.

  • As the war in Gaza escalates, Nabila Manna watches from her home with feelings of fear and helplessness. Her mother, siblings, and extended family are all in Gaza.

World

Politics

Health

Sci-Tech

  • Geoffrey Hinton, the British Canadian computer scientist whose machine learning discoveries have proved so profound he's known as the 'godfather of AI,' has won the Nobel Prize in physics.

  • A device used by researchers with Fisheries and Oceans Canada appears to have been the victim of an attack by a great white shark 300 metres under water off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Entertainment

Business

Lifestyle

  • Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.

  • A woman in Greater Sudbury, Ont., said "It doesn't get more Canadian than this" when she spotted a black bear dumpster diving at a Tim Hortons last month.

  • A Winnipeg baker is hanging up his apron permanently because he won the lottery.

Sports

Autos

  • Mercedes-Benz has partnered up with the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) and the provincial government to launch a new “incubator programâ€. One of the first three locations is Windsor, with the other two going to Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo.

Local Spotlight

Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.

Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell has made hockey history, becoming the first ever female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL).

A B.C. couple is getting desperate – and creative – in their search for their missing dog.

Videos of a meteor streaking across the skies of southern Ontario have surfaced and small bits of the outer space rock may have made it to land, one astronomy professor says.

A unique form of clouds made an appearance over the skies of Ottawa on Sunday evening.

Bernie Hicks, known as the ‘Batman of Amherst,’ always wanted to sit in a Batmobile until a kind stranger made it happen.

Bubi’s Awesome Eats, located on University Ave West took to social media to announce the closure on Friday.

Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and the Government of Ontario have awarded a $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to design, build and finance a new Far North hospital.

Manitobans are in cleanup mode after intense winds barreled through southern parts of the province this weekend.

  • LIVE

    LIVE

    The leaders of B.C.'s three main political parties are facing off for their first and only televised debate ahead of the Oct. 19 election.

  • UBC researchers are using artificial intelligence to determine the dangers of busy roads for pedestrians.

  • A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.

  • More than two weeks have passed since Hassan Ali walked out of a Toronto courtroom a free man, after prosecutors decided not to move forward with a first-degree murder trial against the local rapper.

  • An organization that ranks the best universities across the globe says its latest report shows a concerning trend that several of Canada’s institutions are slipping down its list.

  • Calgary police are searching for a suspect or suspects in a stabbing that occurred in the city's southeast on Tuesday evening.

  • If you were outside and looked up Monday night, you likely witnessed one of Mother Nature's most spectacular displays.

  • A teen recording artist from Fernie, B.C., who made music with the Flaming Lips has died. Nell Smith's family confirmed her death in a social media post earlier this week.

  • On September 11, Madeleine Gervais was the victim of a theft in Ottawa's west end. It happened in the Loblaws parking lot in College Square, when she was approached by a man and a woman who insisted to help her load her groceries into her car.

  • OC Transpo officials are satisfied with the start of a critical testing period required before opening Ottawa's new north-south train, despite some technical issues being identified on three trains on Monday.

  • An Ottawa man who stabbed his estranged wife to death in an attack that also injured his daughter in Ottawa's west end has been found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

  • A 10-year-old boy in Longueuil is recovering after his neighbour allegedly poured boiling water on him. Longueuil Police (SPAL) said the woman was arrested and could face assault charges.

  • An 18-year-old man has died following a collision with an STM bus on Tuesday afternoon in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough.

  • A 38-year-old Beaumont resident is dead after a crash involving a motorcycle over the weekend.

  • Edmonton's transit system is seeing record usage, with six million trips taken in September.

  • One of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s key advisers and the driving force behind the province’s recovery-focused addiction treatment policy is leaving the job.

  • Police in New Brunswick are trying to track down a man they consider “armed and dangerous†after he allegedly crashed a vehicle, waved a weapon at police, and fled in a stolen vehicle.

  • International award-winning editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder has been cut from the Halifax Chronicle Herald.

  • Concerns are being raised over a questionable PC campaign expense, after an invoice for a car rental was submitted by a company advertising sex and intimacy coaching.

  • There’s a new starting line-up at Canada Life Centre, which hockey fans and concertgoers will notice as soon as they walk in.

  • Manitoba RCMP and the Winnipeg Police Service are launching Manitoba's Most Wanted website.

  • Erin Folk and her family are dealing with a nightmare of a situation, after their pet dogs were shot last week.

  • The John Howard Society of Saskatchewan (JHSS) appeared in the Supreme Court of Canada Tuesday challenging a regulation that it says lets provincial correctional workers discipline inmates without sufficient proof.

  • A memo from the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union (SGEU) has painted a picture of healthcare workers on the brink – with under-staffing and burnout directly impacting quality of patient care within the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency (SCA).

  • Fire crews were called to respond to Mohawk Plaza shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday.

  • The future of a hybrid shelter in Waterloo is up for discussion.

  • An app developed at the University of Guelph is aimed at making accessible doors more accessible.

  • The province’s consumer watchdog is investigating a Saskatoon company selling luxury vacation condos in Mexico.

  • In the wake of a near-fatal overdose at the doorstep of Saskatoon’s safe consumption site last week, the province’s political leaders are weighing in with their strategies to help those struggling with drug addiction.

  • A Saskatoon mom is desperately fighting eviction after she discovered mould in her suite and reported it to her landlord.

  • A crash Tuesday afternoon on Highway 144 has closed the road north of Sudbury.

  • Police in Huntsville are investigating a deadly single-vehicle collision that happened Tuesday morning.

  • Speaking in front of the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee, London Police Services (LPS) Chief Thai Truong gave an update on policing Tuesday.

  • Drivers and businesses along Wellington Street in London’s downtown area continue to feel the pain as the city works on the downtown loop for the bus rapid transit project (BRT).

  • A 20-year-old man who was behind the wheel of a speeding car that struck and killed an international student in Barrie last summer pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death on Tuesday but will not spend any time behind bars.

  • Police in Huntsville are investigating a deadly single-vehicle collision that happened Tuesday morning.

  • Police arrested a man accused of setting an animal on fire in Orillia, Ont. last month.

  • A Toronto couple pleaded guilty to involvement in a $13-million drug investigation that started in Windsor.

  • The Windsor Police Service is investigating two break-ins that took place at schools in the city last week.

  • The busiest international crossing in North America is about to get busier — and it’s put the City of Windsor in a position to prepare for potential worst-case scenarios.

  • A retrial date has been set for a man accused of fatally shooting a rival gang member and an innocent teen passerby in Vancouver in 2018.

  • The Sooke School District has acquired a 7.2-acre plot of land in North Langford to build a middle school, as enrollment within the district continues to grow.

  • Over the summer, Victoria software engineer Vedran Budimcic watched his wife spend a week trying to get a coveted BC Ferries reservation, refreshing the website hundreds of times a day hoping for a cancellation on sold out sailings.

  • A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.

  • Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.

  • NDP Leader David Eby is promising to offer a $75-million loan forgiveness program to entice doctors, nurses and heath professionals to expand health-care services in rural British Columbia.

  • Charges have been laid against a 44-year-old man following a traffic stop in Brocket, Piikani Nation RCMP said Tuesday.

  • A metal fabrication company west of Medicine Hat has been fined by Alberta Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) following a workplace fatality in 2023.

  • A Lethbridge police officer involved in a scandal involving former Lethbridge New Democrat MLA Shannon Phillips has been reprimanded.

  • A woman in Greater Sudbury, Ont., said "It doesn't get more Canadian than this" when she spotted a black bear dumpster diving at a Tim Hortons last month.

  • The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) is the latest organization to call on the Doug Ford government to re-open dialogue with an airline service that transports lower-income Canadians to crucial medical care far from home.

  • For decades, Mississauga First Nation has known that human remains from their land were at the Canadian Museum of History.

N.L.

Shopping Trends

The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at Â鶹´«Ã½. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.

Stay Connected
Follow Â鶹´«Ã½