Reg Speers, loyal Tasmanian reader, wins $10,000 in our Autumn Cash Code giveaway

This week he learned that he's the latest lucky winner of $10,000 in the ACM network's popular Autumn Cash Code giveaway. ACM is the publisher of more than 100 mastheads, including this one.

"You never know," Mr Speers said. "All good things come to those who wait, and I've been waiting about 85 years. And it's just turned up."

The win comes after a difficult period as his wife Elaine recovers from an illness, including time in hospital.

Mr Speers, from Launceston in northern Tasmania, has been a long-time loyal reader of ACM's The Examiner, which last year marked 180 years of publishing.

"There is so much there," the former police officer said of his daily habit as a newspaper reader. "You are able to keep up with the local news."

Mr and Mrs Speers met when she worked as a postmistress. They married when he was 21 and she was 19. They had three children.

When they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2019, they received letters of congratulations from the Queen as well as the Governor-General and the Governor of Tasmania.

"This is the result you get out of a married life," Mr Speers said. "We're so close that we do most things together. We're hardly apart."

The Examiner editor Craig Thomson said hearing the couple's story "made the phone call to tell Mr Speers of his win one of the most memorable of my career".

"I wish Reg and his wife good health into the future and hope the $10,000 helps in some way to brighten their lives," he said.