Leah Dangen, a 25-year-old lawyer from Hamilton, has won all of her expenses paid for the rest of the year. Photo / ZM
Leah Dangen, a 25-year-old lawyer from Hamilton, has won all of her expenses paid for the rest of the year. Photo / ZM
The winner of ZM’s Expense Free for the Rest of ‘23 competition is “one of the good ones”: Hamiltonian Leah, 25, who works as a lawyer for a non-profit.
Radio hosts Bree Tomasel and Clint Robert broke the good news to Leah last Friday, with fellow ZM host Cam Mansel heading to the Tron to get her on the phone.
When Mansel arrived at Leah’s flat, she asked the radio hosts in disbelief, “Is this the expense-free thing?” before they revealed that she was the winner - and wouldn’t have a bill to pay for the rest of the year.
The 25-year-old was left in shock, saying, “Oh my God, I can’t believe it!”
For Leah, the win couldn’t have come at a better time, as she revealed her landlord had just put her rent up by $70 a week.
And the prize couldn’t have gone to a more deserving winner - the young Kiwi spends her days using her law degree to help others through a non-profit.
She told the radio hosts, “I’m a lawyer but I work for a charity, so the pay’s not too great,” prompting Tomasel to call her “one of the good ones”.
And asked how the win would make a difference to her life, Leah got emotional, tearing up over the phone as she revealed that: “This is gonna [sic] change everything.”
Leah Dangen, who works as a lawyer for a non-profit, couldn't believe it when she found out she had won ZM's Expense Free for the Rest of '23 competition. Photo / ZM
“I can pay off all my debt now ... and then hopefully a holiday.”
Tomasel noted that with the cost of living continuing to rise across New Zealand, the prize must be “a big deal” for her, and Leah agreed.
“It’s a massive deal, this is, like, life-changing,” she said. “Amazing, thank you guys so much.”
The competition saw ZM team up with OneRoof to offer listeners a chance to live expense-free for the rest of 2023.
Listeners had to keep an ear out for a “Key Noise of the Day” on air and call in to go into the draw. The noises could be anything from a garage door opening to the sound of a key in the door. A different noise was played on air each day.
