Man defies the odds by surviving lightning strike, winning $1 million lottery

Peter McCathie is quite possibly the luckiest man alive.

As a teenager, he survived being hit by lightning, and today, he's a $1 million lottery winner; the odds of both happening to a person are 1 in 2.6 trillion. McCathie's been buying tickets for about a year, and never thought he'd actually win big. "I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first," he told CTV.

McCathie was hit by lightning at the age of 14, while wading in shallow waters. "I was trying to lock the boat up," he said. "It was a very sunny day, there was one big, white cloud in the sky, and the lightning bolt came through the trees and hit me." McCathie purchased the ticket with a co-worker and will split the prize, but he'll get an additional $10,000 because he owns the Nova Scotia store where they bought the $3 ticket. He said he plans to use his windfall to take his wife on a second honeymoon.

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The 1 in 2.6 trillion calculation was determined by University of Moncton mathematics professor Sophie Leger, who told ABC News she combined the lottery odds, lightning odds, and the odds that McCathie's daughter was also struck by lightning and survived a few years ago. "It's almost not possible, but it did happen," she said. "It shows that anything can happen in life."