Man finds winning lottery ticket days before it expires

An Oregon man discovered he was the winner of $1 million (£829,100) just days before his winning ticket was set to expire.

Joemel Panisa stumbled across the Mega Millions lottery ticket, with the deadline to claim his prize only eight days away.

See also: National Lottery creates a record 347 millionaires in 2016

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On a snowy day in Oregon, Panisa decided to clean his office.

After finding the ticket, he checked the numbers online, and that's when he discovered he had won the lottery in January of 2016.

All Mega Millions tickets are valid for one year after the date of the drawing. He claimed the prize on 9 January just ahead of the 17 January deadline.

This makes Panisa the fourth Mega Millions $1 million winner since the game was introduced in Oregon in 2010.

Earlier this year a British couple revealed how they found their very own winning ticket in the bin.

Joanne Joynson was amazed to find out that the Spanish Lottery ticket she'd thrown away was actually the key to the jackpot.

Luckily she managed to salvage it from the wheelie bin outside her house and she cashed it in for £66,000.