Mom Who Spent Life Savings on Daughter's Cancer Treatment Wins $2 Million Lottery Jackpot

In 2020, spending on cancer drugs alone in the USA reached an astounding $71 billion. Following heart disease, cancer is the second most common cause of death in the US. Recent national reports have concluded that 51% of cancer patients and survivors incur egregious medical debt as a direct result of the costs of their cancer care.

These harrowing statistics paint a bleak picture. What would you do if you were diagnosed with a deadly disease? How would you play the game, where the rules say that in order to pass go, you had to cash out and put a mortgage on your house?

The Extent One Mother Went to Save Her Daughter's Life

One courageous Florida woman staked all she had — in good faith — to stand by her daughter while she fought for her life, no matter how great the cost.

When her daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer, Polk County resident Geraldine Gimblet, devoted every last penny she had saved, to helping her daughter fight cancer and beat the odds.

After an arduous physical, mental, and economic battle, Gimblet's daughter finally received her last chemotherapy treatment. While the medical bills had lacerated Geraldine's safety net, her daughter's victory was undoubtedly a cause for celebration.

The Gimblets had stared adversity in the face and won, even though Geraldine had drained her entire life savings in the process. However, it is true when they say, "tomorrow is another day", because unbeknownst to the Gimblet family, in less than 24 hours, lighting would strike twice.

It was on a routine trip to her local gas station the following day, that Geraldine Gimblet had the impulse to purchase a BONUS CASHWORD Scratch-Off. The clerk surveyed the tickets tucked invitingly beneath the plexiglass display at the counter. His eyes ran over the neat columns of shiny tickets. Brightly colored plastic vouchers, advertising hidden riches; selling hope and promise in scorecards of purple and green.

After some time, he was unable to find Geraldine's favorite game amongst the stacks. Concluding he was fresh out of CROSSWORD scratchers he suggested an alternate game, but Geraldine insisted the attendant take another look. Her persistence paid off.

"At first the gas station clerk thought there were no tickets left, but I asked him to double check because I like the crossword games the best," she recounts.

And in a scene eerily reminiscent of Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, as if hiding in plain sight, Geraldine gleefully recalled:

"He found it!"

Though he didn't know it, the store clerk who manned the counter of the Pipkin Road Beverage Castle — kitty-cornered between two steepled churches, on an otherwise provincial stretch of quiet roads — had just handed Geraldine Gimblet her very own golden ticket.

He rang her up for $10 plus tax and she walked out with $2 Million.

That day, Geraldine drove down a road she'd driven down a hundred times. She went about her day in no unusual way, and though her world was about to change, she remained the same: a mother, who had the capacity for unrelenting faith.

Faith in her daughter's will to fight, faith in herself to fight alongside her, and maybe (just maybe) faith that she could wish a $10 lotto scratcher into $2 million dollars...and in spite of the 1-in-3.9-million odds stacked against her, that's just what Geraldine Gimblet did.

Gimblet chose to take a one-time, lump-sum payment of $1,645,000.

Alongside her family, she took the 260-mile trip to the Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee, where she met Chief-of-Staff, Reggie Dixon. Having caught wind of the family's story and being moved by their turn of fortune, Dixon presented the winnings to Gimblet personally.

Geraldine's daughter thoughtfully summarized the beauty and breadth of their inextricably linked experiences:

“The day before my mom bought this ticket, I rang the bell and walked out of the hospital after completing my last treatment for breast cancer. My mom had taken out her life savings to take care of me when I was sick. I’m just so happy for her.”

Kindness always wins.