New Delhi, India

A former preschool teacher from Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States shocked the world when he won $250,000. Joe Camp worked as a preschool teacher in North Carolina for over two decades, after which he was laid off in September as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the country.

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Camp has faced a series of ordeals this year - from losing his job, to later losing his father.

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According to a news release from NC Lottery, Camp claimed that the successive losses put him in a "dark place''. It added how he pulled through with help from his friends and family, who told him to keep going forward, and to ''keep believing'' in himself.

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Camp thought the year would go downhill further, until he won the lottery, and suddenly had $250,000 at his disposal. Camp claimed that he went to the store on a Thursday morning to buy a scratch-off ticket - a habit for him.

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On that day, Camp had bought two tickets. He didn't win anything on the first ticket, but as soon as he scratched the second one, shock befell him. ''I fell to my knees at the gas pump'', he reportedly said.

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Camp intends to use the $250,000 ticket on his family. He wants to fund his daughter's education, and also buy a new home for his family which he wants to pass on.

"What I plan on doing with my winnings is having a future for my daughter," he said. 

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"I want to have something for us. I never had anything. No one passed anything down, and that's what I want to do", CNN quoted him as saying.

The United States is the world's hardest-hit country in the world, followed by India in terms of COVID-19. It has left many people across industries jobless, and has triggered a global economic crisis.