Geraldine Gimblet Florida mom who spent life savings on daughter’s cancer treatment wins $2m lottery payout. Insisted clerk check again when told there was no more scratch tickets left.
Sometimes the universe listens. A Florida mother who spent her life savings on her daughter’s cancer treatment won a $2 million lottery jackpot. The win came a day after the daughter finishing the last round of treatment.
Geraldine Gimblet, of Lakeland, had stopped at a gas station hoping to purchase one of the crossword ‘$2,000,000 BONUS CASHWORD Scratch-Off game’ $10 lottery tickets, only to be told by the clerk that they were all out.
Gimblet insisted the worker check again.
‘At first the gas station clerk thought there were no tickets left, but I asked him to double check because I like the crossword games the best,’ Gimblet said according to the lottery’s press release. ‘He found the last one!’
In CASHWORD, players are given 20 letters and three separate games, where they must match three or more words in each game with their letters and win the cash prize listed, with the chance of doubling it with a ‘MONEYBAG’ symbol.
But how much did mom spend on daughter’s cancer treatment?
After winning the game’s top prize, Gimblet chose to take a one-time, lump-sum payment of $1,645,000, which had a 1-in-3.9 million chance of cashing, according to the lottery’s website.
The win comes after Gimblet’s daughter successfully finished her last treatment for breast cancer.
Gimblet’s daughter revealed her mother had spent her entire life savings to be able to pay for her treatment and care.
‘The day before my mom bought this ticket, I rang the bell and walked out of the hospital after completing my last treatment for breast cancer,’ Gimblet’s daughter told the lottery. ‘My mom had taken out her life savings to take care of me when I was sick. I’m just so happy for her!’
Gimblet, her daughter, and granddaughter all took the 260-mile trip up to the Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee, where Reggie Dixon, the Chief of Staff of the lottery joined them for the payout.
Pipkin Road Beverage Castle, the Lakeland retailer that sold the scratch-off, will receive a $2,000 bonus commission for selling the winner.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the cost of Gimbllet’s daughter’s cancer treatment cost was and whether the daughter was insured and if so, what out of pocket expenses were.
