Dubai: A man who won 5kg gold worth Dh741,250 at a Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) raffle will use the windfall to save his father’s life.
John Francis Angel’s father is battling an advanced stage of colon cancer. Angel, 26, moved to Dubai last year to support his family in the Philippines.
His father, a retired lawyer in the Philippines, was diagnosed with colon cancer late last year.
He refused conventional medication because he did not want to burden the family with prohibitive costs, opting instead for alternative medicine.
“He is suffering quietly, but now that I have won, it will go a long way in getting my father the treatment he needs,” Angel said.
Gift for mum
Angel’s dream run began earlier this month when he decided to buy a necklace and a pair of earrings for his mother from Joyalukkas, a leading gold retailer in Dubai.
Since he wanted something special, not just ordinary gold, so Angel decided to buy a link from the world’s longest gold chain, which was certified by the Guinness World Records at the beginning of the month.
To his good fortune, Angel was in time for the DSF promotion offering people a chance to win 1kg of gold and a one-carat diamond every day of the month-long festival.
This also includes a weekly draw offering 5kg gold for every purchase of gold and jewellery worth Dh500.
“I wanted to get a special gift for my mum who is really special to me, so I decided to buy a link from the longest chain, since it perfectly matches what I mean to say to my mum. The set is not just ordinary gold, but a record-setting one. I had planned it to be a gift for her on her 50th birthday,” said Angel, whose mother works as a midwife in Leyte, an area hardest-hit by typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.
Angel could not believe his ears when he learnt that he had won 5kg of gold. The first person he thought about was his father, “whose current condition has been worrying the entire family”.
He called his father “a strong-willed man” and said that there is good reason why he was given “this wonderful blessing [winning the DSF raffle].”
It was the first time that Angel, who works as an administrative staff, joined a raffle. He told Gulf News that he never bought the gold set with the thought of winning the raffle.
“I only had my mum in mind when I decided to buy the gold. It’s the first time I joined a big raffle and actually won. DSF can really change people’s lives for the better.”
The last day of the DSF promotion is February 1. At the end of the month there will be a mega draw for one prize of 20kg gold, two 10kg gold prizes and one five-carat diamond.
