Anwin and her husband, Laurie, were visiting family in Zimbabwe when they won yourtown's Christmas Prize Home Draw 482 – and while it took some time to get ahold of them, we finally managed to convince them that they had won first prize.
Their $3.25 million prize included an entire luxury whole floor apartment on the Gold Coast, styled by Darren Palmer, with spectacular uninterrupted views of North Burleigh Beach.
“My husband was in awe and couldn’t quite get his head around the fact that we’d won,” says Anwin.
a bittersweet Prize Home win
Not long after their life-changing win, Laurie sadly passed away.
“My biggest thanks is that Laurie got to experience the house.”
While they didn’t live there full-time while he was alive, they had a holiday with some friends and visited the home nearly every weekend they could.
Anwin says that during Laurie’s last months, he was comforted knowing that the win would help her be financially stable when he was gone.
our winner shares why being a myplace member is important
Planning their trip to Zimbabwe meant that Anwin and Laurie didn’t have time to buy Prize Home tickets.
They were so busy, they didn’t have time to visit the house and they certainly didn’t have time to worry about going online and buying tickets.
“So had we not been myplace members, we wouldn’t have won!”
living the beachside dream
Now, Anwin lives the beachside dream in her Darren Palmer designed apartment.
“I knew yourtown did a lot of good things, but I didn’t understand exactly how much and how many different things they did. I’ve learned a lot about the organisation and all the fantastic things it does.”
Anwin and Laurie were yourtown myplace members to help our charity and always had that little bit of hope.
“It was the last thing we ever expected to win. Someone’s got to win it, and you might!”
