The wedding bells will be ringing a lot louder for an Abbotsford couple after their Set for Life scratch ticket proved a $675,000 winner.
Brad Atkins, 51, was sitting in his car outside a convenience store when he discovered his ticket would set up him and his fiancee, Kathy, for life.
“I thought it was going to be the same scene as many times before,” laughed Atkins. “I had won a free ticket on the previous scratch so this one was a bonus. When I saw the word ‘CASH,' I thought, 'This can’t be happening!' "
The winning ticket was purchased at the 7-11 on McCallum Road in Abbotsford.
“When I called my fiancee to tell her we had won, of course she didn’t believe me. It was only when she arrived at the 7-11 and came in with me to see the retailer she started to understand I was telling the truth, athough I still can’t quite believe it myself. It’s like a dream I hope I don’t wake up from.”
Atkins began buying Set for Life tickets on a regular basis after a friend of his won the jackpot a few years ago.
“I knew it was possible,” he said.
The couple weighed their options and chose to take a lump sum of $675,000. Plans for the prize money include buying a new house and planning their upcoming wedding.
Set for Life is a scratch-and-win game that offers players the chance to win a top prize of $1,000 a week for 25 years.