Pittsburgh-area woman who won $3 million from scratch-off to take husband with incurable cancer on dream trip to Alaska
CHICORA, Pa. (KDKA) -- An Armstrong County woman whose husband has a rare form of incurable cancer will be able to fulfill his dream of visiting Alaska after she won $3 million from a scratch-off ticket.
Fifty-year-old Penny Reep said she had a dentist appointment in Butler and stopped at Rummy Mart on South Main Street in Chicora to exchange some winning tickets. She bought two lottery tickets, and one of them was a winner.
"I scratched the $30 ticket and thought, 'I'm not seeing this right.' When I scanned it, it said, 'Congratulations, you won $3 million.' I grabbed the counter and started crying. I had chest pain and it felt like my feet were coming out from underneath of me," she said in a news release from the Pennsylvania Lottery.
She was presented with a commemorative check for $3 million on Thursday. She said the win comes at the perfect time.
"My husband has a very rare form of cancer and it's not curable," Reep said. "We don't know how long we have with him. He's no longer able to work and I've been trying to take care of him, but I'm also having health problems."
She said the money will give her the chance to fulfill her husband Patrick's dream of visiting Alaska.
"It was always a pipe dream," she said. "Now, I'm going to be able to give him everything he's always wanted."
KDKA-TV talked to a few of the couple's friends and they say the two have spent their lives giving and giving and asking for nothing in return.
"I knew she had really hard circumstances and you are like, 'oh, thank God,'" said store owner Sharon Snow.
Rummy Mart received a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning $3 Million Diamonds and Gold ticket.
Reep said they're still going to be the same people, staying in the same house and choosing to invest the money, "but now we will have memories for a lifetime." And her husband is getting a new pickup truck.
