79-year-old wins $650k dream home

Anne Clinch (left), radio host Will Johnston and Hayley Trebilco of Jennian Homes Coromandel at the house handover. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

When 79-year-old Masterton resident Anne Clinch first heard she had won the Heart Foundation Lottery’s first prize of a fully-furnished Jennian dream home, she wondered if she was being scammed.

After some reassurance from the Heart Foundation that the three-bedroom home in Whitianga, valued at $650,000, was actually hers, she could barely believe her luck.

“It was just the most amazing news,” Clinch said.

She began buying tickets in the Heart Foundation Lottery in 2001, shortly after her husband had heart surgery.

Buying tickets was seen as a way of giving back to the charity that had offered so much during the life-changing event.

“Even if I had never won a prize, I would continue to support the Heart Foundation as it is such a worthy cause and offers so much to people after they’ve had a heart attack,” she said.

Her daughter Marilyn Morrison agreed, and said the information and support offered by the Heart Foundation to people living with heart disease was very beneficial to the family following their dad’s heart surgery.

“When you walk away from the hospital, you need to know that there is reliable information and support available to you and your family,” Morrison said.

Learning her mother had won a house had been an eventful process, she said.

“Mum asked me to sit down, so I was worried that something bad had happened.

“Then she told me that she’d won a house — we are all still gobsmacked by it.”

She said the home was “just beautiful”, and much larger than she had expected.

“The house is really spacious, with good quality furnishings.

“Whitianga itself is just lovely and you feel like you’re on holiday as soon as you arrive.”

The family plans to enjoy some weekends at the house before reluctantly selling it, due to the travelling distance.

Heart Foundation direct fundraising manager, Gail McIntyre, said the lottery programme was one of the charity’s most significant revenue-generating activities.

“As a charity, the Heart Foundation relies on the generosity of the public to continue much of its life-saving work.

“Often our lottery supporters are either heart event survivors or know the devastating effects of losing a loved one to heart disease, and this means they’ve often experienced first-hand the benefits of the care and support that the Heart Foundation offers.”

The Heart Foundation runs six lotteries per year, each with a first prize of a fully-furnished Jennian dream home and other prizes including overseas holidays, a new car from Toyota and $10,000 cash.

The Whitianga house was the 50th built by Jennian Homes for the Heart Foundation Lottery since they teamed up in 2009.