Winner of $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot is an immigrant battling cancer: "I'll find a good doctor..."

Sometimes, when people are going through the darkest times in life, a light appears at the end of the tunnel. For a Laos-born immigrant battling cancer, it came in the form of one of the largest lottery prizes in history. Cheng "Charlie" Saephan bagged the $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot earlier this year, while he was battling cancer. The Portland resident undergoing chemotherapy expressed relief since the money would make a huge difference for his family and treatment, according to the official release.

A Life-Changing Stroke of Luck

The 46-year-old immigrant won the fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball's history, which he said he would be sharing with his wife and a friend. He chose to take the lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes. As per the Associated Press, Saephang had been undergoing chemotherapy for the past eight years. At the press conference held by the Oregon Lottery, he said that he had teamed up with his wife, and a friend named Laiza Chao, 55, of Milwaukie, to buy more than 20 Powerball tickets for the 7 April draw.

After they bought the tickets, Chao shared a photo of them with Saephan and joked, “We’re billionaires.” While it wasn't true at the time, it took only a day for the dream to turn into reality. After the draw,  Saephan and his wife discovered that they had won the mega jackpot. He said that he called Chao to tell her the life-changing news while holding the winning ticket and asked her where she was. When she told Saephan that she was going to work, he said "You don’t have to go anymore," to break the news. Saephan's single ticket matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot. The three lucky players beat abysmal odds of 1-in-292.2 million to score the Powerball jackpot. 

“I am grateful for the lottery and how I have been blessed,” he said at a press conference. “I will be able to provide for my family and my health… I’ll find a good doctor for myself," he told KOIN. Saephan also shared that he plans to first purchase a home for his family in Oregon. He shared that he is going to continue playing the lottery as well. “I might get lucky again,” he said. 

Culturally Significant Win

Saephan's win also raised awareness about the Iu Mien people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China. “I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan said at the conference.

During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien from Laos, many of whom worked as subsistence farmers, according to AP. After the conflict and the Laotian civil war, the U.S.-backed government of Laos fell in 1975. The Iu Mien then fled from Laos to Thailand to avoid living under the new Communist government.

According to the website of Iu Mien Community Services in Sacramento, California, thousands of refugees were allowed to come to the U.S., and most of them settled along the West Coast. Today, there are tens of thousands of Iu Mien living in the U.S.