Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, 46, of Portland, OR, a Laos-born immigrant who has been battling cancer for eight years has won a US$1.3 billion Powerball jackpot. The prize is the fourth largest in Powerball history, with the highest ever payout in California in 2022 of $2.04 billion.Saephan had his most recent chemotherapy treatment last week, he said at a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery on Monday. He and his wife, Duanpen, 37, are giving half their winnings away to a friend, Laiza Chao, 55, of Milwaukie, a suburb of Portland, who had tossed $100 into a batch of tickets bought by the Saephans. After taxes, each party takes home $422 million. Saephan, who has two children, told reporters weeks before the draw he wrote numbers down on a piece of paper and put them under his pillow. He prayed, “I need some help — I don’t want to die yet unless I have done something for my family first.”“I prayed to God to help me,” he said.“My kids are young and I’m not that healthy.”When asked what he would do with the money, Saephan said he will use the money to take care of his family and seek good quality treatment. “I will be able to provide for my family and my health,” said Saephan.“Find a good doctor for myself.”“How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?”As a joke the day before the winners were drawn, Chao sent a photo of their shared tickets to Saephan and said, “We’re billionaires,” he recounted. The next day they won.Saephan moved from Laos to Thailand in 1987 and immigrated to the US in 1994, working as a machinist for an aerospace company, per the Associated Press.He said he belongs to a southeast Asian ethnic group called Iu Mien, many of which were subsistence farmers and supported the American military during the Vietnam war.To avoid retribution, thousands of Iu Mien families fled to Thailand after the war and eventually onto the US, said Saephan, with tens of thousands of Iu Mien people settling along California’s West Coast. There is an active Iu Mien community in Portland where he lives, he added. The winning ticket was sold early April at a convenience store in Portland after a three-month winless streak. Lottery officials conducted a security and vetting process before announcing the winner’s identity. The winning numbers were 22, 27, 44, 52, and 69, and Powerball of 9.
