Woman with cancer wins nearly £1m lottery, then finds out her chemo is working

Diane Bishop, a resident of New Foundland, Canada, has stage 4 breast cancer.

She continued to work at her convenience store throughout her treatment because her government support of $1,100 per month was not enough to cover her mortgage payments.

In October, Bishop's predicament was covered by CBC, and she began to receive donations and support from good Samaritans.

Weeks later, she made the uncharacteristic purchase of a $20 scratch lottery ticket - it was with that ticket that she won the Super Set For Life jackpot of $1.5 million.

Bishop has used the money to secure her home, and put some funds aside for her two sons.

She told CBC:

This money wasn't about going out and buying a new house or taking trips...This was about survival. I can survive now, and my kids can survive.

Her first purchases were for a therapeutic adjustable mattress to ease her aches and pains, and a comfortable electric chair to use while receiving her chemotherapy treatments,

The winning ticket was followed by even more good news from her doctors.

Until then Bishop's body had been struggling to respond to chemotherapy, but now her doctors tell her it has had an effect.

This is the only chemo so far that has worked for me...it had taken the fluid out of my lungs. It has shrunk some of the cancer that is in my lung, and it actually healed part of the bone that's in my leg.

On her two bits of brilliant news, Bishop commented to CBC;

I may not survive if I get pneumonia, so I had to weigh the pros and the cons and say, 'OK, you know what, there's got to be a way to make it, if I don't work.' My health has to come first

Bishop put her improved health and lucky lottery win down to the power of prayer.

I really believe that it's the power of prayers. I've had so many people praying for me. They email me through Facebook, they come to the store, they call me, they text me, and they told me their churches are praying for me.

Because she purchased the ticket her own store, Bishop will also win the one per cent bonus that is sent to the retailer. She told CBC she plans to donate it Daffodil Place, a non-profit centre for cancer patients. The money donated to her by strangers will be given to another patient she knows with inoperable cancer.

HT CBC

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