B.C. reverses course, approves funding for boy’s crucial overseas brain treatment
Posted October 3, 2026 11:13 am.
It might not seem like it now but the past few years have been anything but a walk in the park for the Hepburns.
Nine-year-old Nathan was diagnosed with a serious arteriovenous malformation, or AVM. It’s a rare brain condition that his mom, Natasha, likens to a leaky pipe that will eventually burst.
“AVMs, especially ones that are located in the thalamus, have a very aggressive trajectory, and if you don’t get treatment, they will continue to form aneurysms, or they can just rupture without notice,” said Hepburn.
Thankfully, AVMs are treatable but the catch is, the treatment for an AVM as serious as Nathan’s isn’t available in North America.
Suddenly, Hepburn had to figure out how to come up with the hundreds of thousands of dollars it would cost to get her son a series of surgeries in Germany.
“We knew that we really didn’t have any viable options left for him here, and without this treatment, he would lose his life.”
For months the province denied her requests for funding, calling the proposed procedures “unproved and experimental,” forcing the single mom to crowdfund to cover the costs.
“I just think that finally, the evidence was hard to ignore, because my son is the evidence.”
After two surgeries – Nathan’s AVM is halfway towards being repaired.
Hepburn says that outgoing Minister of Health Ravi Kahlon personally reached out to her after learning of the treatments’ early success through advocacy from MLAs on both sides of the aisle. Hepburn says he told her that signing off on Nathan’s funding was the last thing he did before stepping away from politics.
“He said he’s a dad, and he couldn’t overlook that information.”
“Getting that funding, getting that approval, took a significant amount of weight off my shoulders.”
The $400,000 will cover the final treatments Nathan needs to fully cure his condition – a result that Hepburn says wouldn’t have been possible without the massive outpouring of support she received from the community.
“I may be a single mom, but I’ve never felt alone through this because I’ve had all of you, and I’m so grateful.”
Hepburn says she’s still crowdfunding to help pay for flights and accommodations but with the procedures themselves finally paid for, Nathan is on the path to recovery and she’s on her way to getting back to just being a mom.
