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Times Advocate, 1998-11-11, Page 1414 Exeter Times.Advocete Community Wednesday. November 11. 1998 Four area families share $ million prize From left lucky lottery winners Darlene Van Bergen, Joan Sararas,Anita Davies and Steve Sararas celebrate with chairman of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and Exeter native John MacNaughton.The winners will be splitting the $1 million prizealongwith Bryan and Linda Lightfoot, absent from,,the photo. By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF EXETER — Four area families were. a whole lot. happier last week. after they learned they would be sharing $1 Million as winners of the Princess Margaret Hospital's annual lottery. The lucky winners are. Bill and Darlene Van Bergen of, Centralia; Steve and Joan Sararas of Exeter, Anita. and Rick Davies of Huron Park and Bryan and Linda Lightfoot. Darlene Van Bergen saw the draw on TV and said at first she' couldn't believe she .had won. She said when -the announcer called out her. naine she thought she was imagining things but a phone 'call a couple of innutes.later confirmed she had'really won: Van Bergen then called the other winners. Van Bergen, who says she's never. won a big prize, before, said she , and her husband Bill have a lot of decisions to make about What to do with the money, although she .admitted tliey, have' already ,bought, a. new ,car and truck because it's something they've. always wanted tb . do, • Van Bergen said while she was "pretty excited"; yvinning the lottery, laugh. "It's a great start iil.life." The couple also has two,boys, , Joan Sararas; who_ along with. husband Steve owns Huron Park's Food Town, said her reaction at learning she won $250,000 was'.`absolute disbelief"'.. -She said she and the other winners had ,been joking about Winning for a couple of weeks. %Juan said she and Steve, who have'.two daughters, haven't ' decidod what to do with their money yet. Anita Davies was also- surprised to learn ;she had won, adding 'she,' tWiught Van Bergen was' making things -up when she called her and said they'had won: _ . Davies; who lives in Huron 'Park 'with husband Rick and, their feta -children, said she still hasn't decided what to do with the money. ' For, now, she's just "basking in -the thrill of it all." "To, collect their, winnings, ,the group',r'ented a li.mo,to Toronto. Sararas said she continued _thinking through the whole drive that it wasn't for real and described the group as a "very,'very happy bunch ofpeople." When she spoke to the T -A 'on Friday, she admitted she still hadn't comeback down to earth. . The Lightfoots, requesting privacy, declined an interview with the.'1% is now starting to sink in. A „ . "It feels great ... not to have to worry about things," she said with a Exeter native thrilled to presentrnoney'tolocal winners By Jhn Beckett ' TORONTO -- What are the odds of having four people from the Exeter area winning $1 million in a Toronto hospital draw, driving to the city to claim their price and discovering the person handing out the cheque is from Exeter? This happened last week as Bill and Darlene Van Bergen, Joan and Steve Sararas, Anita and Rick Davies and Bryan and Linda Lightfoot took a limo down the 401 to cash in their winning ticket in the hospital's annual lottery. Presenting the cheque was Exeter native John MacNaughton who is now chairman of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. MacNaughton is the son of Charlie and Addle MacNaughton, who. were longtime residents'of Exeter and who are buried in our community. Multiply the odds of the participants getting together so far, add the next two ingredients and discover the chances of these people get- - ting together in Toronto under these conditions would be in the billions to one category. - The mission of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation is: "To raise and.steward the funds necessary for breakthrough research, compassionate care and exemplary teaching at Princess Margaret, Canada's Cancer Centre.", - MacNaugbton has been a cancer patient himself, fighting two bouts with the disease in the 1970s. MacNaughton told the T -A last week the , vision of the foundation is to "conquer cancer." Since leaving Exeter where he once played in a band with childhood friends George Godbolt and the late Ted,Wilson and worked in the franking department of Dinney Furniture, MacNaughton has had an extremely successful career in the corporate World. He is president of Nesbitt Burns Inc., the investment banking and securities subsidiary of Bank of Montreal. His chairmanship of the foundation is a vol- unteer position. "11 was a thrill for me to be able to present a cheque for $1 million to the winners from my home community," MacNaughton said.