Sandra Culifer of Macclesfield said her dream of winning the lottery came true after winning $200,000 in a second-chance drawing.

“It’s one of those dreams you have but never really think is going to happen,” Culifer said. “And now the dream came true.”

Culifer found out that she won the grand prize in Wednesday’s 2023 Multiply the Cash second-chance drawing when she got an email notification from the lottery. The drawing had more than 42 million entries.

“I’m still in dream land,” Culifer said. “I can’t even explain how I’m feeling.”

She said when she first received the email, she didn’t believe what she saw.

“I glanced at the email and saw it came from lottery and I said, ‘Wait a minute. This says I won,’” she recalled. “I had to go find out if it was real.”

Culifer said she always makes a point of entering second-chance drawings.

“There’s always that chance, you just never know,” she said. “So I just figured, ‘Why not?”

Culifer arrived at lottery headquarters on Monday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $142,500.

She said she plans to pay some bills and share her winnings with her family.

Players get a second chance with their Multiply the Cash tickets by scanning the tickets into their lottery accounts where they are automatically entered into the next drawing. Culifer won the top prize in the second of four 2023 Multiply the Cash second-chance drawings. The third drawing will be Oct. 4.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise $2.5 million a day on average for education. For details on how $3.1 million raised by the lottery made a difference in Edgecombe County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.