Elnora Mills, seem here in her Leland, home on Thursday, August 21, 2014, is one of the victims of the state's former Eugenics Board program.

N.C. Eugenics Board victim Elnora Mills received a $20,000 check Thursday as promised by the state.

"It helps me, but they can only do so much," the Leland resident said. "It's better than nothing, but I'm still mad with what they did to me."

Mills, 63, is one of about 220 statewide who received checks as reparation for the involuntary sterilizations performed by the state board and social services departments from 1929 to 1974.

A second check for an undetermined amount is expected to be sent out sometime next year, Mills said. A $10 million pot was set aside for victims of the program by state legislators in June 2013.

The eugenics program sterilized nearly 7,600 men and women during the 45 years it was in existence. Mills was sterilized when she was 16 and didn't know she couldn't have kids until 1969 when she was married to her husband. She was notified at the time that, during an appendix surgery in 1967, doctors had also removed her reproductive organs because the state saw her as unfit to have children.

Over the years, Mills said, she has found comfort in her husband and her dogs. And for now, she is saving the money.

"I am paying bills, and my husband is sick so I am putting the money away just in case," she said. "Him and my dogs are the only thing I got."

Jason Gonzales: 343-2075

On Twitter: @StarNews_Jason

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Eugenics Board victim receives $20,000 check