Chaudière-Appalaches, Quebec, resident Dany Veilleux found a forgotten Célébration 2026 ticket months after the draw and discovered it was worth $1 million.
Dany Veilleux of Chaudière-Appalaches, Quebec, nearly overlooked a $1 million prize after forgetting about the lottery ticket he had purchased months earlier.
Veilleux bought a Célébration 2026 scratch ticket in December 2025, thinking of it as a gift to himself.
“This will be my gift to myself!” he thought at the time.
But the ticket was soon forgotten. Weeks passed, and Veilleux eventually stopped thinking about it.
Several months later, while sorting through his lottery tickets, he came across the Célébration 2026 ticket again. He took it to a retailer to have it validated, unaware that he was holding one of five $1 million winning tickets drawn during the televised Célébration 2026 gala on January 11.
When the amount appeared on the validation screen, Veilleux initially thought he had won $100,000 because the figure flashed by so quickly.
“The amount flashed on the screen so quickly that I thought I had won $100,000!” he recalled.
It was only after the retailer handed him the validation slip that Veilleux realised the ticket he had forgotten for several months was actually worth $1 million.
Nearly eight months after the draw, the forgotten ticket had finally been validated, revealing that his small gift to himself had turned into one of the game’s top prizes.
