Lawyer Leah was wearing her dressing gown to keep warm when a knock on her door changed her life.
Expecting to see her brother, Leah opened the door to ZM presenter Cam Mansel, there to tell her she’d won a $20,000 prize to cover her expenses for the rest of the year.
“It was 1pm on Friday and I was working in my dressing gown because it was really cold, and we don’t like to use the heat pump too much. It’s expensive,” Leah can be heard telling ZM.
Struggling to hold back tears, she told Mansel: “I'm a lawyer, but I work for a charity. Oh my god. This is going to change everything. I can pay off all my debt now. This is so exciting.”
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The 25-year-old added that her landlord had just put the rent up $70 a week.
Three days after the win, Leah still hadn’t come down to earth. “I’ve cried like 20 times since then,” she told OneRoof on Monday.
Since leaving law school in Wellington, Leah has been struggling to pay off her debt because she has chosen to work as a lawyer for not-for-profit law centre. “It's literally life-changing for me because I don't earn enough to pay the debt off,” she told OneRoof.
Even minimum repayments were a struggle and the debt was growing. “It’s been a constant stress,” she said.
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Dangen, who is of Ngā Puhi descent, had chosen to work for a not-for-profit instead of higher-paying roles in a private practice, saying she had a “passion for helping people”.
“The whole reason I got into law was so that I can have a direct hand in changing people's lives. I only enjoy humanitarian type work,” she said.
“If I went anywhere else, I’d probably be getting 20 or 30 grand more a year. But it’s just not something that interests me. Now I feel like I am where every other young professional is. They can save their money, and now I can.”
Leah has worked on historical human rights abuse cases and also with the Waitangi Tribunal. Her favourite quote is from Martin Luther King Jr: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’.”
Once she has paid off her outstanding debt with the win, Leah can start saving to go on an OE.
The prize, sponsored by OneRoof, offered one lucky winner the chance to live expense free for the rest of the year. To enter, ZM listeners were encouraged to call through on 0800 Dial ZM when they heard the OneRoof Property Key Noise of the Day, which played multiple times a day for three weeks. If they made it to air, they were in the draw.
There was also a competition where listeners could register at ZM Online to win a $500 top up each week, which had about 5500 entries in three weeks.
Total calls for the entire campaign period added up to 56,000, of which about “20 or 30” were from Leah, who listens to ZM a lot. “I’ve never really entered any big competitions,” she said. “I did a couple as a child. But I’d been trying for this particular competition.”
Leah and her partner were driving to Rotorua when she finally managed to get through on air, putting her in the big draw.
On air, ZM presenter Bree Tomasel of Bree & Clint (Roberts) fame said she felt like crying for Leah herself. “I'm emotional for you Leah,” Tomasel said. “This is a big deal with the cost of living and everything that's been going on to have everything taken care of, and you can just concentrate on [life]. It is a big deal.”
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