Immigrant with terminal cancer wins half a billion dollars in lottery

In the American city of Portland, a terminally ill man has won a check for hundreds of millions of dollars after winning the ‘Powerball’, a lottery with a total jackpot of 1.3 billion dollars.

Cheng ‘Charlie’ Saephan (46) spoke to the press on Monday in Portland, Oregon, where lottery winners are not allowed to remain anonymous by law. He said he has been battling cancer for eight years and received his final chemo treatment last week. In his own words, he entered the lottery in search of help – “I didn’t want to die before I did something for my family.”

Saephan is one of several winners of the jackpot and will be left with $422 million in prize money after taxes. He will donate half of that to a friend who contributed $100 to buy extra lottery tickets for the family. Saephan and his wife have chosen to have the money deposited in one go (and not via an annual payment).

“I will now be able to support my family and work on my health,” Saephan noted, “I am going to find a good doctor.”

Saephan, father of two children, says he has already wondered whether he still has time to spend the money, “because how long will I live?”

Iu Mien

Saephan, who worked for an airline, is an immigrant. He was born in Laos and migrated to Thailand in 1987 and to the US in 1994. At the press conference in Portland, he wore a sash that read “Iu-Mien USA.” The Iu Mien is a Southeast Asian people group with roots in South China. Many of them assisted American troops in the Vietnam War and fled to Thailand after that conflict for fear of retaliation. Ultimately, thousands of families crossed to the US. Tens of thousands of Iu Mien live along the American West, with a large community in Portland.

The $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot was the seventh-largest lottery ever in the US. A 2022 lottery in California had the largest prize pool at $2.04 billion.