Winner of $31 million Lotto Max Draw ticket is 83-year-old Marie McCarthy

The long-anticipated winner of the Maritimes’ largest lottery prize has officially been announced.

Atlantic Lottery says the winner of the $31 million Lotto Max Draw ticket is 83-year-old Marie McCarthy of New Waterford the Cape Breton community where the ticket was sold.

The ticket was purchased at Needs Convenience on Emerald Street. The retailer will receive a one per cent seller's prize.

According to McCarthy, the ticket was given to her as a birthday gift her grandson, Jeff.

As far as McCarthy's plans moving forward, she says she will treat herself to a new-to-her vintage Cadillac.

She also plans to share a lot of the prize money with her loved ones, help her immediate family, brother and sisters, and pay off the mortgages of all her nieces and nephews.

A Cape Breton couple won $17.4 million in a Lotto 6/49 jackpot. Raymond and Gaye Lillington of Dingwall, N.S., also won another jackpot worth $3.2 million seven years earlier