Wake County woman gets early birthday gift with $100,000 lottery win

Pamela Doyle of Zebulon has a birthday surprise planned for Wednesday after a lottery drawing delivered her a $100,000 prize.“I’m going to surprise my kids with the big check at my birthday party,” Doyle laughed. “I’ll be 56 years old tomorrow.” She won her lucky prize in the lottery’s Season End Blowout drawing. The Lucke-Rewards drawing had more than 5 million entries. Doyle called it a “huge shock” when she found out she won.“I thought, ‘This can’t be real, there’s no way,’” she recalled. “All the way up here I was shaking.” Doyle said the timing of the win works out great for her.“Things really do happen when you need it the most,” she said. “It’s been a few tough years and I’ve been wondering when we were going to catch a break.” She arrived at lottery headquarters Tuesday to claim her prize and, after required federal and state tax withholdings, took home $71,750. Doyle plans to use her winnings to help take care of her mother. The Season End Blowout drawing awarded three North Carolina lottery players with a $100,000 prize in the Jan. 8 drawing. For details on how $62.7 million raised by the lottery made a difference for education programs in Wake County last year, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.