TORONTO, March 22 /CNW/ - When London resident Bonnie Preece, 49, pulled out $4 from her pocket to buy two LOTTO 6/49 tickets, she wished that she had an extra $1 for ENCORE. Lucky for her, one of those $2 tickets that she bought for herself and her partner William (Bill) Rollings was a match for all 6 winning numbers from the March 20, 2010 draw and they are now $20.6 million dollars richer.
"I was supposed to go into work Sunday morning and I was in my uniform already when I checked the numbers on the TV and realized that I had won," said Preece, who works as a clerk at a grocery store in London. "When we went into the store to check, everyone was hugging us and shouting congratulations, but it didn't really sink in until friends started calling and saying they saw me on the news."
Her partner Bill Rollings, 57, who shares the winning ticket with Preece, has a new lease on life. A heart attack seven months ago sidelined him from work, but he says this win is exhilarating.
"It's like two extremes," he explained. "I almost died, but now I have a world of opportunities ahead of me."
Travelling is first on the couple's agenda.
"We've been abroad in the past, but we're definitely going to relax and travel more," said Rollings.
Preece is already planning a visit to the passport office, so that she can start organizing a dream trip to Scotland and England, where she says she has family and friends, including a pen pal she has had since 1978.
Preece has lived all her life in London, while Rollings was born in Montreal and moved to London in his youth.
OLG is a provincial agency responsible for province-wide lottery games and gaming facilities. Since 1975, OLG lotteries, casinos, slots, and resort casinos have generated more than $28 billion for the benefit of the Province of Ontario. Gaming proceeds support Ontario's hospitals, amateur sport, recreational and cultural activities, communities, provincial priority programs such as health care and education, and local and provincial charities and non-profit organizations through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
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