Rifle resident Bob Clements was unlucky to learn that he had cancer in December 2004.

His luck changed when he bought a winning lottery ticket in April 2005.

But then his luck turned bad again.

Clements, 48, the single father of a 4-year-old son, was undergoing treatment for cancer and had just started on heavy medication when he bought a scratch ticket through the Colorado Lottery.

"The medication made me confused," Clements said. "I couldn't concentrate - I couldn't add or subtract. I had scratched it, but I couldn't understand it, so I put it aside in the top drawer of my computer desk with four or five others. I figured I'd check them when I could think."

The lottery ticket turned out to be a $40,000 winner.

By the time he was off the medication and his head had cleared, the 180-day deadline to turn in the winning ticket had passed.

The game Clements had played ended on June 19, 2005. The deadline to claim his prize was Dec. 19. Clements discovered it was a winner in February. When he turned in the winning ticket, he learned that it was indeed a winner, but it had expired and was thus rejected.

The Colorado Lottery Commission stood by its 180-day deadline.

"It's too bad, and we're not trying to be mean and hard-hearted - not by a long shot," said Diane Reimer, public information officer for the Department of Revenue. "But [the 180-day rule] is the law. And we've never seen the ticket."

Clements went to a local attorney, who initially agreed to take on the case. That was until Clements contacted the National Enquirer, which paid a small amount for his story. The attorney subsequently withdrew from the case.

"I contacted the press because I wanted to tell my story," Clements said. "I do need a lawyer, and I wanted to get my story out."

Monday's edition of the National Enquirer published Clements' story, including a cut-out coupon for readers to petition the director of the Colorado Lottery in Pueblo asking to pay Clements his money.

Reimer said she didn't believe the coupon would make a difference.

"I can't speak for the whole department, but I have a hard time thinking there would be a change," she said. "It's still the law."

Clements said he would have used the money to take his son, Michael, to the beach in San Diego, to Sea World or the San Diego Zoo.

"I know my health ain't good," he said. "I would've paid some bills, and it would have let me take my son and show him some things."

Clements, who is still searching for an attorney, believes he has a rightful claim to the money.

"I feel I'm entitled to it," he said. "It wasn't [the lottery's] fault, and it wasn't my fault."