Lottery 203: Leaving Debt in the Rear-View Mirror

A humble end of year holiday finds a family man in the right place at the right time. In a small coastal town at a shopping centre, Terry* is getting supplies to take back to the caravan park, but a moment of pure serendipity happened. Terry comes to a halt when the Deaf Lottery brightly coloured kiosk signage and flash sports car caught his eye. He buys three sets of $20 lottery books, one for himself, one for his wife and one for his son.

On the 15th of December, just 10 days out from Christmas, Terry sends an unknown number to voicemail. A few minutes pass by and an unknown number calls again.

“Hello, is this Terry? Terry my name is Ian Harvey Ross. I’m the Head of Marketing and Sales at the Deaf Lottery and Deaf Connect. How are you…” Silence, the phone hangs up.

Third time lucky, “Hello, Terry? It’s Ian Harvey Ross calling from the Deaf Lottery. Please don’t hang up! This is not a sales call.” Ian urges.

The Deaf Lottery team cheered and congratulated Terry in the background to confirm this is in fact the Lottery 203 Winning call and he has not only won $800,000 but an additional $5,000 as his winning ticket was bought with a $20 book buyers prize. 

Only days before Christmas Terry and his family were ready to enjoy a debt free and stress-free Christmas, choosing to take the ‘Drive Away Lifestyle’ prize option, buying a new car, taking the cash to a debt free life, booking an extended Christmas getaway break and enjoying an extra lavish Christmas celebration.

A Christmas miracle or just a lucky break for an Aussie with a good heart supporting the Deaf community? 

“It has taken a while to settle in. My wife didn’t believe it! Because like all she used to think about was the impact of these interest rate rises. We didn’t know how we could keep paying the house loan off and now it doesn’t even matter. It is a feeling that is indescribable, just to know that we can now be debt free. ”

“It finally became real to us when the Deaf Lottery deposited the money into my account the day before Christmas. There were extra prawns, cherries and champagne at our Chrissy table.” 

As 2022 came to an end the Deaf Lottery and Deaf Connect team reflected on the year that was and all the projects, services and sponsorships Deaf Connect were able to achieve through the ongoing support of people like Terry and the Deaf Lottery supporters.

From all of us at Deaf Connect, we would like to thank Terry for supporting Deaf Australians, and wish him and his family all the best for a stress-free future!

*Name changed to protect anonymity