BC

A Victoria teen who has raised more than $1 million for children's charities in BC requires surgery that could leave her paralysed, but the province refuses to pay for a second opinion from a U.S. specialist.

Eighteen-year-old Jeneece Edroff wants the opinion from doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

She has a medical condition that is causing her spine to deteriorate and before she has surgery in Canada that will likely end with paralysis, she wants to learn more about an experimental treatment available at the Mayo Clinic.

The province's policy is not to pay for out-of-province surgeries or second opinions available at home, but Edroff says Mayo Clinic physicians are uniquely trained to handle the specific tumours affecting her body.

Provincial Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid is saying only that her ministry is looking into the matter.

Edroff, a recipient of the Order of British Columbia, was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis at the age of three and began a penny drive four years later, raising more than $1 million in seven years. (CFAX)