Another Deaf Lottery Winner Flying High

We spoke to our Lottery 177 Winner, who is flying high (in more ways than one) after collecting $715,000 in prizes!

Getting a phone call out of nowhere telling you your life is about to change sounds like the beginning of a Hollywood script.

“I got the call to tell me I’d won The Deaf Lottery and thought it was my friends playing a trick,” Adam* says. “It didn’t feel real.”

Luckily for Adam, it was very real, and he’d just won $715,000. It was a secret he’d have to keep to himself for 18 hours, and over 11,000 kilometres.

Adam works as a flight attendant for an Australian airline, travelling weekly between his home of Brisbane and Los Angeles, a job he describes as “tiring, but rewarding.”

“I’ve always supported charity lotteries,” he says. “My family has as well. Buying tickets was never about winning. It was more like a donation with a chance to win.”

Adam has been a Deaf Lottery supporter for three years and after a few months of buying one-off tickets, decided to become a Deaf Lottery VIP Member, which, in his words, “makes things so much easier.”

Adam’s decision to join the VIP Club meant he not only won the $700,000 First Prize in Lottery 177, but also the Bonus $15,000 Book Buyer’s Prize (part of over $500,000 in bonus prizes available to VIP Members every year).

Adam, who recently celebrated his 25^th birthday, says he is still coming to terms with what he will do with his prize.

“Before winning, I wasn’t even in the position to think about something like buying a house, but now that is suddenly an option,” Adam said.

The past few years have been challenging for Adam, after a series of surgeries forced him to take a significant amount of time off work, which he found particularly frustrating.

“I struggled to get ahead of the setbacks,” he says. “It was all about that. I never thought I’d be back at work, let alone what I’d do with this amount of money.”

He knows that part of his winnings will go towards helping his brother and sister, as well as something special for his parents.

Adam says he would “absolutely” encourage everyone to buy tickets in the lottery, and has already inspired many to do so, becoming something of a lucky charm in his social circle.

“Everyone in my family now buys Deaf Lottery tickets,” he says. “All my mum’s close friends now do too. I think now they feel like Wow, this lottery is real. Real people win!”

It’s fair to say that despite his windfall, Adam’s feet remain firmly on the ground. That is, when they’re not in a plane thousands of kilometres above the ground…

The Deaf Lottery would like to wish Adam and his family very safe travels towards a bright and happy future, and to thank all our Lottery supporters past and present.

With your help, we can continue to deliver services and programs empowering Deaf and hard of hearing Australians.

*Name changed to maintain anonymity