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Here's what 6 lottery winners spent their prize money on: From medical bills, student loan debt and mortgage payments

Here's what 6 lottery winners spent their prize money on: From medical bills, student loan debt and mortgage payments

Taylor Ardrey

A lottery ticket vending machine offers Mega Millions tickets for sale on January 09, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.Scott Olson/Getty Images

When people win the lottery, they can't wait to take vacations, invest in property or start a trust.
Others decide to use their prize money to pay off debt or make sure their children don't have any.

Ronda Isaac, a mortician, won a $150,000 Powerball prize earlier this year. Issac said she's going to invest her winnings in a double knee replacement surgery.

Isaac told lottery officials that she can finally get "new knees" after her lucky win. Screenshot/NC Education Lottery

"When you work standing up all the time, that's pretty exciting," Issac told the North Carolina Education Lottery.

For school bus driver, Paula Harris, the first thing she wanted to do after winning $150,000 from a $5 scratch-off is pay her mortgage.

"I was so excited," Harris said, per a January 2023 NC Education Lottery press release. "Now I can pay off my house."

In addition, she told lottery officials that she going to use the money to help her children.

Another winner from North Carolina, Ronnie Woods, said he wants to also pay off his mortgage, and renovate his house.

Ronnie Woods won $1 million from a $10 scratch-off earlier this year. Screenshot/NC Education Lottery

"You never know what's around the corner," the Navy vet, who won $1 million from a scratch-off, told the NC Education Lottery in February. "I just want to live in peace and enjoy life."

A South Carolina lottery winner, who won $300,000, said he was going to use his prize to pay off his son's mortgage.

"My son's tickled to death," the man said, WSPA-TV reported.

He won his prize by playing a scratch-off game earlier this year.

Amanda Dietz said she was going to use her $300,000 scratch-off winnings to pay off her student loans.

Amanda Dietz said it was "incredible" to find out she won the lottery. Screenshot/Michigan Lottery

"The day I bought my ticket, I had just given a speech about student loan debt.," Dietz told Michigan Lottery officials in 2017. "I told the audience how wonderful it would be to win the Lottery to wipe all of my debt out at once, and now here I am. It's incredible."

Last year, Frank Long of Bowling Green, Kentucky said he will use his $234,176.98 lottery prize to pay off his car and medical bills.

As WDRB reported last year, Long played the lottery while he was undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

"This couldn't have come at a better time," he said, per the outlet. "It took a lot off me and I'm still trying to process. This is surely shocking."

In addition to his treatments, Long previously said he was going to pay off his truck.

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