After receiving the tough news that he had stage four lung cancer, Richard Beare of Charlotte, North Carolina, won a lottery jackpot he never expected.
After buying four scratch off, “Carolina Black” Powerball tickets at a Charlotte Quik Trip at the urging of his wife, Beare, a retired automotive mechanic, found out he’d won the $250,000 lottery prize.
Read More “The fourth [ticket] was the winner," Beare said in a state-issued press release. "When I saw that I had matching numbers, I asked her, 'What does it mean if I match the numbers?' She said it meant I won a prize. I told her, 'Well, I guess we just won $250,000 then.' She was in shock and just kept looking back and forth to me and the ticket.” We don’t know the specifics of Beale’s diagnosis, but there are generally two types of stage four liver cancer: stage four A, and stage four B. Stage four A liver cancer is characterized by a tumor or tumors of any size, that have spread to nearby lymph nodes, but not to distant parts of the body. With stage four B liver cancer, a tumor or tumors of any size may or may not have spread to nearby lymph nodes, but have spread to distant organs like the bones or lungs. The survival rate for stage four liver cancer varies with the type and severity of the cancer. If the cancer is localized, meaning it hasn’t spread outside the liver, patients have a 31 percent survival rate (survival for five years after diagnosis). If the cancer has spread, but remains “regional,” or in sites near the liver, patients have an 11 percent chance of survival for five years after the diagnosis. For patients whose cancer has spread to distant parts of the body, two percent of patients will survive five years after diagnosis.
The surprise lottery has given Beare the freedom to travel after getting his difficult cancer diagnosis. “I recently got diagnosed with stage four liver cancer, I want to travel while I can still enjoy myself. My wife has always wanted to go to Italy, since that's where her descendants are from. Now I can take her.”
"I only stopped [at Quik Trip] because my wife asked me to get a Powerball ticket since the jackpot was so high," said Beare.
After taxes, the prize he took home came to $176,876. "This feels great," Beare said when he got the check. "It's such a relief." Two top prizes remain for the Carolina Black Contest.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
