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 It's been said that you're less likely to win the lottery than you are to be struck by lightning. 
 
 If that's the case, the odds are even slimmer for Peter McCathie. 
 
 The owner of the Amherst Shore Country Store in Amherst Shore, N.S. was once hit by a bolt from the sky. 
 
 And now he's sharing a $1 million prize with co-worker Diana Miller. 
 
 Congrats to Peter McCathie & Diana Miller! The 2 co-workers from Cumberland Co. #NS won $1M on #lotto649! pic.twitter.com/zjLJKjMVCV — Atlantic Lottery (@AL_Lottery) July 20, 2015 
 
 The pair had been buying tickets for approximately one year, and had bought the latest one from the very store that McCathie owns. 
 
 They purchased it through what's known as a "Retailer Play" button, which allows store owners or employees to buy tickets and avoid disputes later, The Amherst Daily News reported. 
 
 "I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first," McCathie told CTV News. 
 
 The Nova Scotia man was struck by a bolt while on a boating trip when he was 14, the network said. 
 
 "I was trying to lock the boat up, 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 said. 
 
 He now plans to spend the winnings paying off debt and taking a second honeymoon with his wife. 
 
 Miller, meanwhile, wants to take a trip to Cancun. 
 
 University of Moncton mathematician Sophie Leger calculated the odds of winning the lottery AND being struck by lightning at about 1 in 2.6 trillion, CTV News reported. 
 
 In other words, if McCathie were a U.S. resident, he'd have had a better chance of being a movie star (1 in 1,505,000) or being attacked by a shark (1 in 11.5 million), according to NBC News. 
 
 Thank goodness the odds have finally turned in his favour. 
 
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 CTVNews.ca Staff 
 
 
 
 
 
 The odds of getting struck by lightning in Canada are less than one in a million. 
 
 The odds of winning the Atlantic Lotto 6/49 are even worse -- one in 13,983,816. 
 
 And the odds that both of these extraordinary events should happen to the same person in Nova Scotia are nearly impossible. 
 
 But lightning strike survivor Peter McCathie beat all those odds when he and his co-worker, Diana Miller, collected their million-dollar prize at the Atlantic Lottery offices in Moncton on Monday. 
 
 McCathie’s brush with death occurred during a boat trip when he was 14. The lottery winner said he was wading through shallow waters near the shore of a lake when he was struck by lightning. 
 
 "I was trying to lock the boat up, 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 told CTV Atlantic. 
 
 Incredibly, McCathie's daughter was also struck by lightning a few years ago in an eerily similar scenario while working as wilderness guide in Manitoba. 
 
 "They had pulled off the lake due to storms, so she was locking all the canoes, making sure they weren't going to get blown away, and she got hit by lightning," said McCathie. 
 
 McCathie and Miller have been buying tickets together for about a year, but they never expected to beat the odds. 
 
 "I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first," said McCathie. 
 
 So how unusual is his story? 
 
 A mathematics professor at the University of Moncton believes the odds may be in the trillions. 
 
 "By assuming that these events happened independently … so probability of lotto … times another probability of lightning – since there are two people that got hit by lightning – we get approximately 1 in 2.6 trillion," said Sophie Leger. 
 
 Diana Miller is planning a trip to Cancun, Mexico with her share of the winnings, while McCathie says that after 30 years of marriage, it's time for him and his wife to take a second honeymoon. 
 
 McCathie also owns the store where he bought the ticket so gets an addition $10,000 from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. 
 
 With a report from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis ||||| MONCTON – Cumberland County is home to the second million-dollar lottery winners in a month. 
 
 Diana Miller and Peter McCathie are Cumberland County’s latest million-dollar lottery winners. Their number was drawn during the guaranteed $1 million Lotto 6/49 draw on July 15. 
 
 Submitted 
 
 HL: 
 
 Peter McCathie of Amherst Shore and Diana Miller of Amherst are co-workers who purchased a Lott 6/49 Combo 4 lottery ticket together every week. They recently found they had won a guaranteed $1 million prize from the July 15 draw. 
 
 McCathie owns the store where he purchased the ticket and where he and Miller both work, Miller as a baker. 
 
 When asked how she reacted when McCathie told her they had won big, Miller said, “Maybe I won’t ask him for a raise this year.” 
 
 McCathie said he’ll use his winnings to pay off some debt, and maybe take a few days off now and then, which will let him pursue his passions of cooking and fishing. 
 
 Next year, he and his wife will celebrate their 30th anniversary, so they may go on a second honeymoon, possibly to Ecuador. 
 
 Miller’s plans are not set, though she has decided on one thing. 
 
 “As soon as I get cold, I’m going to Cancun for a holiday,” she said. 
 
 She’ll continue to work though, as she loves her job, and spend time on her farm. 
 
 They purchased their ticket at the store where they work using the retailer play button. That indicates the ticket purchase has been made by a lottery retailer or a retail employee. 
 
 “When purchasing draw-based tickets, our lottery retailers and retail employees are encouraged to stamp their tickets using the Retailer Play button on the lottery terminal,” said Jay Merritt, manager of risk management and investigations at Atlantic Lottery. 
 
 The stamp helps protect players and retailers from any disputes regarding ownership. “We are pleased that these winners used the button; in the absence of using the retailer play stamp, any related party wins are subject to a minimum 30 day review,” he said. 
 
 The winning ticket was sold at the Amherst Shore Country Store in Amherst Shore. The retailer will receive a one per cent seller’s prize. 
 
 Their win is the second recent millionaire win in Cumberland County. Helen Fortune of Oxford Junction won $1 million on the June 17 Lotto 6/49 draw, exactly four weeks earlier.
– Peter McCathie's first grand stroke of good luck happened when he got hit by lightning at age 14 and lived to tell the tale. His second came this month when he won a $1 million lottery in Canada with a co-worker, reports Huffington Post Canada. If you're scratching your head wondering, "What are the odds," CTV has your answer, courtesy of a math professor at the University of Moncton: one in 2.6 trillion. Those are the odds of one lotto win and two lightning strikes, the professor explains. It turns out McCathie's daughter has also been struck by lightning. "I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first," says McCathie of winning the lottery; he plans to use the money to pay off debt and take a second honeymoon with his wife of 30 years. He still recalls the lightning strike, which happened as he was wading in a lake's shallow waters. "I was trying to lock the boat up, 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 actually owns the store in Amherst Shore, Nova Scotia, where he and employee Diana Miller bought the winning ticket, and if that sounds fishy, cumberlandnewsnow.com can dispel any suspicions. They used something called a "retailer play button" designed to ensure any such purchases are legit. As for Miller, a baker at the store: "Maybe I won't ask him for a raise this year." (This man just survived a lightning strike to the head.)