'I’ll still fly economy': $50 million Lotto Max winner plans to be selective with spending
A woman from Maple, Ont., is celebrating her luck after winning a $50 million Lotto Max jackpot from the draw on Jan. 17.
“I’m a person of faith and I believe God blessed me with this win,” Claire Williams said in a statement. “He prepared me by taking me through some difficult times so that when I received this blessing, I would know how to handle it.”
Williams purchased the winning ticket at the Shell on Rutherford Road in Concord, Ont. She found out she won the jackpot the morning after the draw, when she looked up the winning numbers on the OLG website.
“One after another they matched the numbers on my ticket,” she said. “I fell off my chair when I realized I won.”
The finance professional said she was “overwhelmed and emotional” when she first found out about her big win, to the point where she was worried she would lose her ticket before claiming her prize.
“I slept with it under my pillow,” she revealed.
The Ontario resident doesn’t have any immediate plans to spend her winnings but she wants to get some “good advice” on how to manage her funds and plans to “take things one step at a time.”
Eventually, Williams would like to use some of the money to travel, “but I’ll still fly economy,” the lottery winner said.
Although this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Williams has been lucky enough to experience significant lottery wins in the past. She is a regular Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 player, and won just over $1,000 on Jan.13.
The Lotto Max draws happen twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and each play is $5. Earlier this month, a record-breaking $70 million Lotto Max jackpot was won by a man from Brampton, Ont.
