'We're the forgotten ones': Premier to meet with Princeton woman who took herself off transplant list because of costs

B.C.'s premier has agreed to meet with a Princeton woman who says she had to fundraise to pay for life-saving transplant surgery in Vancouver that she desperately needs.

B.C.'s premier has agreed to meet with a Princeton woman who says she had to fundraise to pay for life-saving transplant surgery in Vancouver that she desperately needs.

Christina Derksen-Unrau said when she first learned she was a candidate for a double lung transplant, she didn’t know the financial cost the surgery would carry.

“Twenty-six days before I was set to meet with the transplant team doctor, I was told I had to come up with $20,000,” she said.

That money, she learned, would be needed to cover accommodation and living expenses for three to six months in Vancouver post-surgery. Without it, she wouldn’t be put on the transplant list.

“It’s like somebody just pulled the bottom out of our world,” she said.

Derksen-Unrau, who has asthma, emphysema and lung cancer, learned from other organ recipients that the costs can sometimes be even higher. She said she had no choice but to temporarily take herself off the transplant list and start an online fundraiser.

Her financial predicament is not isolated.