RALEIGH – A hospice care worker from Vale says winning $200,000 instantly means less stress and a summer cruise.

Donna Shronce was on her way home from work Tuesday night when she stopped at the Triple B One Stop on N.C. 274 in Cherryville. There, she bought a ticket for the $200,000 Gold Rush game.

“I sat out in the car, relaxed and scratched off the ticket,” Shronce recalled. “Got to the last two numbers then all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I won!’”

Unsure if she had actually won the top prize, she took the ticket back inside to get a second opinion from the store clerk.

“Am I reading this right – is it $200?” she asked. “He said, ‘You won $200,000!’”

Shronce said her after-tax winnings of $138,501 would make a big difference for her and her husband, a food service technician. Shronce said they would tithe to their church, pay the college expenses for a daughter, save for the future, and take a summer cruise.

“If I can win, anyone can win,” she added. “I’m so grateful.”

With Shronce’s win, two top prizes of $200,000 remain to be claimed in the $200,000 Gold Rush game.

Ticket sales help the lottery raise on average $1.4 million a day for education. To see how lottery funds have made a different in Lincoln County and others in the state, visit the “For Education” page on the lottery’s website.