Elizabeth Garcia and her husband Tony hold the winning cheque for the Dream Lottery 50/50 draw, July 13, 2017. (Photo by Miranda Chant, Blackburn News.)Elizabeth Garcia and her husband Tony hold the winning cheque for the Dream Lottery 50/50 draw, July 13, 2017. (Photo by Miranda Chant, Blackburn News.)
London

St. Thomas Man, Dorchester Woman Dream Lottery Winners

"Oh my God," were the only words a St. Thomas man, whose name was drawn as the grand prize winner in the Dream Lottery, could muster when notified of his win by phone.

Dermot Brennan was announced as the top winner in the draw on Thursday. He now gets to choose between a fully furnished north London home with a Land Rover convertible, a three-storey beach condo in Port Stanley with a Jaguar convertible, or $1-million cash.

Brennan was visiting family in Alberta when officials with the lottery, which supports the London Health Sciences Centre, Children’s Hospital, and St. Joseph’s Health Care London called him about the win.

"I had the fortunate opportunity to make that call and I could tell in the gentleman's voice that he was overwhelmed with excitement," said John MacFarlane, president and CEO of the London Health Sciences Foundation.

During the brief chat, Brennan gave no indication which prize he will select. However, should he pick one of the homes, he'll also get cash to cover house cleaning, lawn maintenance, and property taxes for one year.

Elizabeth Garcia of Dorchester is the 50/50 prize winner. The 67-year-old first time Dream Lottery ticket buyer, takes home $456,382.50.

"It's something that you dream about. You get this phone call that you've won the lottery but you really don't believe it," said Garcia. "I was still sleeping when I got the call and he said 'are you sitting down?' I was laying down in bed and I sat up and thought maybe I've won something, maybe $20,000. But $456,000? I still can't believe it."

Garcia recently underwent two hip surgeries at London's University Hospital after moving back to the area a year ago with her 68-year-old husband Tony.

"I was in Nova Scotia for five years and never got operated on," said Garcia. "So the service here and the hospitals are great."

While Garcia isn't entirely sure how she will spend her windfall, she is planning to use some of the money to pay off bills and take a vacation.

The winners of the "gear up giveaway" were also revealed Thursday. Ken McCann of London will have his pick of four vehicles or $40,000, while Richard Shildrick of London can choice between two vehicles or $8,000.

Since launching in 1996, the lottery has raised more than $30-million for London’s three hospitals.

"The great thing about this money is that we can use it for the highest priority needs of our hospital because it's what we would call unrestricted funds. It could be for research, it could be for a particular piece of equipment. Each of the hospitals involved will make an assessment of what their needs are and then access the funds," said MacFarlane.

Roughly 97% of the tickets for the spring/summer edition of the lottery were sold between April and June.

A full list of winners for the more than 2,000 other lottery prizes will be posted online in the coming days at www.dreamitwinit.ca.

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