Sara Wilkerson of Laurinburg said she can help pay for her nursing school with a $150,000 second-chance win.

“You never really think something like this could happen to you,” she said. “But it happened.”

Wilkerson, 41, is currently in nursing school. She won the grand prize in the second and final Holiday Spectacular second-chance drawing on Feb. 8. The drawing also offered two $10,000 prizes, and 100 prizes of $500. There were 9.5 million total entries in the drawing.

“I saw the email and I thought it was a joke,” she said. “I had never really won anything before but I kept trying.”

Wilkerson said she called her mom right away to tell her the good news.

“She didn’t believe me,” Wilkerson laughed. “I was like, ‘Mom this is legit.’’

Wilkerson arrived at lottery headquarters Friday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $106,875.

She said besides nursing school she will put the rest of her winnings in savings.

Players got a second chance with their holiday scratch-off tickets by scanning them into their lottery accounts where they are automatically entered into the drawing. Winners of second-chance drawings get their first notification by email, followed by a phone call, and finally a certified letter.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. Scotland County received $3.9 million in money raised by the lottery last year, including a $1 million grant to do high school renovations. For details on other ways the lottery made a difference in Scotland County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.