A 24-year-old Fiji nurse planning to get married next year has won a $5000 cash prize while competing with her twin sister for free talk time in a Vodafone-sponsored promotion for this month’s Miss South Pacific Pageant.
“I didn’t expect to end up here,” a shy Ashmeeta Priya Ram told reporters while in Suva today to receive her cheque from Vodafone’s Ligavatu Gukisuva and Hibiscus Event Group chairman Dhansuk Bhika.
“I was just having fun with my twin sister. We were competing to see who would win the $10 free talk time.”
Ram said she texted PBS (Pacific Building Solutions) to 888 between 40 to 50 times.
PBS is a sponsor of the Miss South Pacific Pageant 2009.
“Keep on texting 888 to PBS,” she said while receiving her cheque.
Ram’s name was drawn last Friday in the first of five draws with cash prizes of $5000 each until the final draw on November 24, where a winner will also be drawn for a PBS-supplied $75,000, two bedroom house.
A nurse at the Nadi Hospital, Ram said she might use the cash to go on a trip abroad.
Her father, recently-retired school teacher Abhi Ram said the money would help prepare for her daughter’s wedding planned for next year.
“This boosts the morale of the girls and also financially, and it helps prepare for her wedding next year. She is already engaged,” said Ram.
Quipped twin sister Amrita, also a nurse at Nadi Hospital: “I’m really happy that she won. She’s very lucky and hopefully she shares.”
