Sandy Martin almost struck out on her chance to claim nearly $200,000.
The long-time Bracebridge resident won $196,364 through the Jays Care Foundation’s Life Changing 50/50 draw.
Martin says she bought the ticket Sunday night in early July while watching a movie before going to bed. She explains a notification popped up on her phone telling her there were only four hours left in the draw and that proceeds from the draw will support sending kids to camp through Jays Care programs.
“I don’t buy a lot of lottery tickets very often,” adds Martin. “This is the first time this year I bought a 50/50 ticket from the Jays. I just thought I was helping send a kid to camp.”
To her surprise, she was called the next day by someone who identified themselves as Rodrigo with the Jays Care Foundation.
“I thought this was a scam,” shares Martin.
Despite Rodrigo assuring her he wasn’t trying to con her, Martin didn’t believe him. She remembers telling him, “I’m an old lady, I’m on high blood pressure medication, I don’t appreciate this scam call.”
However, after returning home and checking her email, she realized she had won. So, she called Rodrigo back and he asked her to send over some information to confirm her identity.
Still skeptical, Martin printed out the forms and brought them to the Bracebridge OPP detachment. She told them her story and said the person at the front desk said she thought it was a scam but took the forms and the recording of Rodrigo’s voicemail to one of her colleagues for a second opinion. Martin says she came back and told her the officer thinks it’s legitimate.
“So, then my heart’s racing,” she continues.
After sending all the necessary documentation in, Martin says it took 18 days for the Purolator package to arrive. “It was a rollercoaster,” she adds. “I didn’t sleep. I was getting maybe two hours of sleep a night.”
The rollercoaster ride had one last twist, though: five days before the cheque arrived, Martin got her second tick bite of the year and had to go to the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital in Bracebridge to get it removed.
She asked the doctor if – considering this has now happened twice in eight months – there’s medication she could take to prevent this from happening again.
“He came to me, he looked at me, and he said, ‘Sandy, let me tell you something,” she remembers. “‘You’ve got a better chance of winning the lottery than getting Lyme disease from this tick bite.”
Martin says she started laughing, confusing the doctor, and told him the good news.
“He said, ‘I’ll be right back. Let me go get your medication.’”
After getting the cheque, Martin was invited to the Rogers Centre in Toronto to watch a Blue Jays game. “I got to meet Rodrigo and I apologized profusely for calling him a con artist and a scammer and everything else,” she laughs. Martin says, to his credit, he laughed, too, and told her how he had a blast going through the process with her.
With her winnings, Martin says she gave some to her two daughters to help pay off their mortgages, some to her husband to invest, and she plans on using the rest to replace her 50-year-old kitchen.
“Thank you, Blue Jays,” says Martin.
