A Toronto mother and her 14-year-old daughter were recently surprised with $20,000 during a taping of the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Glenda, an office manager who has been living in her mother's basement with her teen daughter, Ivy, recently used a large chunk of their savings to travel to Los Angeles for a much-needed vacation and a taping of one of their favourite daytime talk shows. The mother-daughter duo had been saving up to find their own nest, but decided to travel to L.A. instead.

When DeGeneres learned about this, she singled out Glenda and her daughter during a segment titled "The Last Person Standing Wins Big." The episode aired this week.

"So this is your first vacation in a while, right?" DeGeneres asked Glenda. "And you decided this was more important than moving out?"

DeGeneres then joked with the audience, telling them, "I hope you all have the same priorities she does."

DeGeneres later surprised Glenda and her daughter with $20,000, courtesy of Shutterfly, so they can still move out.

"We want you to not only visit us, but we want you to be able to have enough money to move out of the basement and move into someplace else," DeGeneres told them.