Richard Beare collected his big prize from the winning scratch-off ticket Monday. (North Carolina Education Lottery)
After learning that he was diagnosed with cancer, a North Carolina man received a bit of good news — that he'd won a quarter of a million dollars in a lottery scratch-off.
Richard Beare, of Charlotte, said he "rarely" plays the lottery but won a $250,000 prize -- after he'd recently found out he had stage 4 liver cancer.
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"I only stopped because my wife asked me to get a Powerball ticket since the jackpot was so high," he told the North Carolina Education Lottery. Beare was at a Quik Trip store two weeks ago and decided to buy four Carolina Black scratch-offs while he was there.
Beare said that his fourth scratch-off was the big winner. He said he noticed the ticket had matching numbers, and asked his wife what that meant.
"She said it meant I won a price. I told her, 'Well, I guess we just won $250,000 then,'" Beare said. "She was in shock and just kept looking back and forth to me and the ticket."
The lottery stated on its website that Beare claimed his prize on Monday in Raleigh, and after tax withholdings, he received $176,876.
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And what does Beare plan to do with the money?
"I want to travel while I can still enjoy myself," he said. "My wife has always wanted to go to Italy, since that's where her descendants are from. Now I can take her."
