A retired Orillia dentist has scored a massive prize through the Princess Margaret Home Lottery.
lan Steele, 69, won the lottery bonus prize, which includes a downtown Toronto waterfront condo, $50,000, and season tickets to Toronto FC, Raptors and Maple Leafs. The package is worth more than $1.26 million.
Steele, an Orillia resident for about 40 years, says he purchased his tickets in the spring — as he has for several years. In the summer, he deleted his digital tickets from his email.
"I never win," he said. "It's just something else on my email that clutters it, so I deleted them without giving it another thought."
On Monday, Steele received a phone call from the charity lottery asking him to turn in his tickets.
"Luckily, they retrieved the tickets from their files," he said. "The lady on the phone said, 'Congratulations. You won.'"
When Steele learned about winning the life-changing prize, he was "dumbfounded."
"I didn't think it was going to be anything like that," he said. "It never crossed my mind that I was going to win anything."
He says it hasn't fully sunk in for him yet.
On Thursday, he visited his new condo.
"It was very nice," he said. "I'm looking forward to using it in conjunction with Leafs, Raptors or soccer tickets. It's going to be fun."
Steele believes his luck may be the result of some good karma. In May, he donated $3,000 to Mariposa House Hospice to help the organization purchase new beds.
The donation was made in honour of his wife, Robin, who died of lung cancer in the spring at Mariposa House Hospice.
"It's one of those things I haven't totally moved on from, but I do my best," he said. "My passion now is to raise as much money as I can for the Orillia hospice."
Shortly after making his donation, Steele began going door to door, asking for donations from neighbours with the goal of raising $150,000 to help Mariposa House Hospice purchase new beds.
"From what I understand, by the end of the year, we are going to have enough money for all the beds," he said. "It's awesome."
Steele plans on donating some of his sports tickets to Mariposa House Hospice so it can use them in fundraisers.
"We are so fortunate to have that end-of-life service in town," he said. "I didn't realize how fortunate we were until I was able to take advantage of it. It's a really good service that they provide."
He says he feels lucky to have won the lottery, and he wonders if the luck came from a guardian angel watching over him.
"It could be that my wife is looking down on me," he said. "I'm thankful that I got this and now I can toss some more money to hospice and help out a few other people. It's all good."
The deadline for the $2.7-million early-bird prize is Nov. 15. The prize includes a Kawartha lakefront cottage, plus $50,000 cash. Tickets can be purchased at PrincessMargaretLotto.com or by calling 1-866-631-1234.
