By Aaron Miller
A carpenter won £1m on the U.S lottery, then died of cancer shortly after. It sounds like a crazy story when a man does close to the impossible and turns up with a life-changing lottery prize, only for someone else to fight for IRS claim because the winner himself is dead.
51-year-old Donald Savastano walked into a convenience store at a gas station and won the big prize a few days into the new year, only to later die of cancer. It should have been the beginning of a bright year for him, what perfect timing to reverse his financial misfortunes. The sad end of the story highlights the unpredictability of life.
Is there a deeper reason, Savastano won the lottery? It would have been much more beneficial if he had won the money a year or two earlier, giving him enough time to at least enjoy a lot of it.
Savastano at the time told reporters, he had planned to use the lottery winnings for his retirement, and to buy a new truck, and invest in the future. station WCVB.
However, Savastano also expressed a desire to see a doctor because he wasn’t feeling well. Nobody thought his death was literally around the corner. He couldn’t afford life insurance before the winnings and hadn’t been feeling well, wanted to visit a doctor, the station reported.
He soon discovered that he had Stage 4 lung and brain cancer. He was 51 years old when he died.
After working for commercial companies, he decided to go into business for himself.
“This is going to change our lives, to tell you the truth,” Savastano said to the local media shortly after winning the ticket.
Savastano is survived by his girlfriend of 12 years, Julie Wheeler; his mother, Annette Savastano Dart; and his brothers, John, Charles, Louis and Doug.