Between May and December of last year, Chris Flett went through two life-changing events: his house burned down and he won the lottery.
Flett, 34, recalls fetching his daughter from school and rushing home to grab some of his belongings as a forest fire began to threaten his hometown of Fort McMurray.
The fire forced 88,000 people from their homes and destroyed almost 2,600 dwellings.
Flett went back in early June with some friends to take stock of the damage.
"It was incredibly tough to watch everything you worked for in your life to be sitting there and be nothing but ashes."
Flett's fortunes shifted six months later when he won more than $400,000 in the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation Mighty Millions Lottery 50/50 jackpot.
"Disbelief, probably a little bit of fear, happy, sad," Flett says of his reaction to the win. "It was a roller-coaster of emotions, it really was."
With the cash infusion, Flett didn't have to make concessions as he planned the rebuild of his home. He was also able to help out his mother, whose home was under-insured, and his younger brother, who had no insurance for the place he was renting with friends.
So far, he's given $35,000 to $40,000 to charities that helped out with the disaster and intends to donate more.