Daryl Luster is one of the lucky ones.
The patient advocate with the Pacific hepatitis C network was diagnosed with the disease completely by accident while getting surgery for a hernia.
He said if he hadn’t found out, he might well be dead today.
“Some of my peers are dying now. These are people that unfortunately went on to develop, most commonly, liver cancer. Even if they were cured recently,” he said.
Being in Luster’s position isn’t unusual. An estimated 80,000 British Columbians have hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that can devastate the liver — but officials say many people don’t realize they do.
