Former hospital employee wins Holiday 50/50 fundraiser

In this picture, we can see Carol Heuvelmans on the right side, who has won the grand prize jackpot of $59,545 in the Igniting Healthcare Holiday 50/50 contest. She is standing with her husband Leo on the left and their daughter Courtney in the middle.

A person who used to work at a hospital in Chatham-Kent has received an early Christmas surprise.

Carol Heuvelmans, who used to work as a nurse at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, earned herself a jackpot of $59,545 in the inaugural Igniting Healthcare holiday 50/50 raffle.

During the course of four weeks, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Foundation was able to collect a sum of approximately $119,000 from the sale of tickets. Finally, on Thursday, Heuvelmans received her share of the prize money.

After serving at the hospital for almost two decades, Heuvelmans has been actively contributing to the Foundation's 50/50s since its inception. However, winning was something he never imagined. Upon receiving the announcement of his victory, he expressed his sheer delight, stating that the Christmas present couldn't have been more extraordinary. Furthermore, he added that he might overindulge his loved ones with gifts this year.

On November 29, Carol bought her ticket on the Internet, and it had the fortunate winning number CK-7813872.

Heuvelmans said that he saw on Facebook that the ticket sales had ended before he went for a walk. When he went for a walk with his daughter, he saw a group of people standing on his porch when he came home.

Besides gifting a part of her winnings to family and friends for the holiday season, she and her spouse named Leo intend to allocate some of the money for a voyage to Portugal in 2022 commemorating their golden 50th anniversary.

The fundraiser named Igniting Healthcare 50/50 has gathered an impressive amount of more than $1.5 million since the year 2019.

Fifty percent of the monetary resources were allotted to the victorious individuals and the remaining fifty percent was utilized in procuring medical supplies for the medical facilities situated in Chatham and Wallaceburg.

The money raised from this event will provide assistance to the most important areas at CKHA's Chatham and Wallaceburg locations.

Heuvelmans expressed his excitement over winning and expressed gratitude towards the community for their continuous support towards the foundation.