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Gina Short, North Carolina Woman With Breast Cancer, Wins $1M Lottery: How Much After Taxes?

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 01:09 PST, Feb 18, 2016

Gina Short, a North Carolina woman battling breast cancer, recently won a $1 million lottery jackpot.

The Kansas City Star reports that Gina, who has battled against breast cancer for the past six years, won the million-dollar lottery prize thanks to a recent North Carolina lottery drawing.

What were the odds of Gina having the winning entry? The report states that her entry was submitted along with over 1.2 million others in a second-chance million lottery drawing. Therefore, her chances were actually less than the iconic “one in a million” shot.

According to the report, Short “fell to the floor when she learned she’d won.”

WSOC TV reports that Gina discovered she was the grand prize winner when she visited the lottery’s regional office located in Charlotte.

In addition to winning the first Ultimate Millions second-chance lottery drawing, Gina told the lottery officials that she felt her winnings gave her a “second chance.”

“If you would have told me, in a million years I still wouldn’t have believed you. I would have said, ‘No you’ve got the wrong girl,’ because that’s what I said to them when they told me I had cancer, ‘No you’ve got the wrong girl.'”

Her husband, Len, was right by her side when Gina claimed her lottery winnings the same way that he has reportedly supported her throughout each stage of her cancer battle.

“I might have gone through the breast cancer, but this is the guy that told me not to run. I wanted to give up, but he would not let me give up.”

In the near future, Gina Short will continue to undergo cancer treatment sessions. However, she claims that her winnings from the $1 million lottery drawing will be used to help her “truly live.”

Gina Short may have won the $1 million lottery but how much of that amount did she actually get from it?

The Kansas City Star reports that Short opted to take the lump-sum payment instead of the standard annuity, which is not very surprising when taking her current health condition into consideration. The annuity option for the lottery winnings would have paid Gina $50,000 a year for the next 20 years.

According to the report, after state and federal tax withholding expenses, Gina received $415,500 — nearly 42 percent of the full lottery jackpot amount.

This is not the first time in recent history that a person struggling with some form of cancer has received a substantial boost financially by winning a state lottery drawing.

For instance, Brooklyn residents Tom and Elizabeth Stevens used an apparently lucky penny to scratch off a lottery ticket. The couple initially made the trip to a nearby store to pick up popsicles and ended up with a $5 scratch-off lottery ticket that won them a $100,000 cash prize.

In an interview with WKYC, Elizabeth said that she “just started crying” when they realized that she and her husband — who had been battling lung cancer — were winners.

After taxes, the Stevens reportedly collected $71,000, more than enough money to help soften the financial blow of parking costs at MetroHealth, the center where Tom received his cancer treatments.

In addition to Tom’s battle with lung cancer and strokes, Elizabeth also struggled with heart problems. She told WKYC that after Tom recuperated, she told him that they were going to do something such as take a trip and go on vacation.

Tom’s biggest focus, though, was not on what to do with the couple’s lottery winnings. On the contrary, he was focused on overcoming his cancer and continuing to be there for his wife. He simply said to WKYC that “I want to live for her.”

[Image via Dollar Photo Club]

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