$250,000 lottery prize means a dream trip to Italy for Charlotte cancer patient

Richard Beare of Charlotte is planning to travel the world after he won a $250,000 lottery prize.

“I recently got diagnosed with stage four liver cancer,” Beare said. “I want to travel while I can still enjoy myself. My wife has always wanted to go to Italy, since that’s where her descendants are from. Now I can take her. ”

Beare’s good fortune happened two weeks ago when he stopped at the Quik Trip on North Tryon Street in Charlotte to get a Powerball ticket.

“I rarely play the lottery,” Beare said. “I only stopped because my wife asked me to get a Powerball ticket since the jackpot was so high.”

The retired automotive mechanic decided to get some scratch-off tickets while he was there. He asked the clerk for four Carolina Black tickets.

“The fourth one was the winner,” Beare said. “When I saw that I had matching numbers, I asked her, ‘What does it mean if I match the numbers?’ She said it meant I won a prize. I told her, ‘Well, I guess we just won $250,000 then.’ She was in shock and just kept looking back and forth to me and the ticket.”

Beare claimed his prize Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, he took home $176,876. 

“This feels great,” Beare said when he got the check. “It’s such a relief.”

The $5 ticket launched in March with four top prizes of $250,000. Two top prizes remain.

Ticket sales from games like Carolina Black make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $650 million a year for education. For details on how $61.9 million in lottery funds made a difference in Mecklenburg County last year, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.