Like lots of New Zealanders, Sam Flipp has always made a point of buying a Lotto ticket every Friday on his trip into town, dreaming about winning it big and what he could spend the money on.
The 22-year-old from Himatangi, near Foxton, is pretty typical in other ways too – he loves playing Xbox, listening to music and watching movies and TV. But he has been wheelchair-bound since he was eight, as a result of Friedreich’s ataxia, a disease that claimed the life of his older sister five years ago, when she was 19.
Sam’s speech and vision are impaired and he relies heavily on his caregivers, but he recently hit it big – becoming the 14th person to pick up $1 million on Lotto’s Winning Wheel.
Sam buys his ticket every week with his carer in town. It took a week before he checked and realised he was a Winning Wheel winner, and then another six weeks before he was called up to spin the wheel live on the show.
“He tried to spin it himself, but wasn’t able to,” explains his mother Janette. His friend, Ben Harris, was called in to do the honours and duly spun the top prize of $1 million.
Janette says all of the Lotto crew was very emotional and Sam was in shock. “He wasn’t watching the wheel but after seeing everyone’s reactions he realised he’d won the big one. Everyone was so excited.”
Sam had spent the six-week wait daydreaming about what he might buy with his prize.
“There was a lot of discussion on what he’d do with it,” says Janette. While he might have been secretly hoping for the big money, Sam was focused on all the things he could do with the smallest amount he could possibly win. “He didn’t want to get his hopes up too much
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