RALEIGH – Stephen McFadden, an engineer from Winston-Salem, is now a lottery jackpot winner thanks to the Carolina Cash 5 ticket he asked his roommate to buy for him. McFadden’s roommate, Casey Brown, is also his friend and co-worker. The ticket turned out to be worth $118,831.

“I was almost speechless,” McFadden said after realizing he won. “I couldn’t really move, I couldn’t say anything.”

McFadden and Brown were talking by the time they arrived lottery headquarters in Raleigh to collect the winnings. McFadden said he planned to either pay off his mortgage or get it refinanced. His only immediate plans were to talk to a financial advisor. The friends said they planned to continue playing the lottery in the hopes of winning a larger prize playing Powerball or Mega Millions.

“That’s the reason you buy lottery tickets,” Brown said. “To dream.”

Brown made the lucky purchase at the Quality Mart on Peters Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem. The ticket was one of two that matched all five numbers in the March 3 drawing, making each worth half the $237,662 jackpot. The other ticket was sold in Asheville and has yet to be claimed.

Through June 30 of last year, Forsyth County players won more than $114.8 Million in prizes and local retailers earned more than $15.6 million in commissions on ticket sales. During the same time frame, Forsyth County education programs received more than $63.7 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, need-based college scholarships and prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.2 billion for these initiatives statewide.