WHILE many of us wagered money on the Melbourne Cup, this week Warwick resident Neville Biggins turned $100 into $2.2million.
Mr Biggins won the grand price in the Multiple Sclerosis Society of WA’s Mega Home Lottery, a $1.7million, fully furnished, luxury home in Hillarys.
The grand price also included $500,000 cash giving him a 22,000 per cent return on his initial $100 lottery ticket.
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READ NOW“I’m in a state of shock,” Mr Biggins said.
“I’d been out with my friends and we were watching the prize draw on the TV and my name came up and I just sat there and said, I don’t believe it, I’m sure that’s me’.
“Then my little goddaughter, she flew through the door and did about six cartwheels and she said, ‘it’s you, it’s you’.”
This afternoon Mr Biggins received keys to his new home from MSWA chief executive Marcus Stafford and stepped inside the house for the first time.
His new home was custom-designed by one of Australia’s most awarded homebuilders, Webb and Brown-Neaves and features an open-plan design, swimming pool and poolside deck.
Mr Biggins has been buying tickets in the Mega Home Lottery for the past six years and has recently experienced some financial pressure.
“I work Monday to Friday and I’ve been trying to get some shift work just to get a little bit of extra money and I’ve been struggling just at the moment, but now this has happened and I just can’t believe it,” he said.
He is yet to decide what he will do with half a million dollars but says he plans to update his car.
As well as the $2.2million first prize, the lottery gave away 8350 prizes worth more than $5.1million, including overseas holidays, cars, home theatre systems and laptops.
“The Mega Home Lottery is a win-win situation,” Mr Stafford said.
“It is great to see someone like Neville have his life changed forever.
“We invest the proceeds from the Lottery in helping make the lives of people with MS and other neurological conditions better.”
The money raised by the lottery ticket sales go towards research into a cause and cure for the disease and helps fund better treatments and facilities for multiple sclerosis patients.