Lyndsay Richholt finally got her liver transplant surgery.
After well over a year of waiting as her health declined to catastrophic levels, the Kelowna mother got a new lease on life on Friday, April 10.
The life-saving transplant came courtesy of Okotoks, Alta., woman Robyn Ralph, who flew to Vancouver for the procedure last week.
On Sunday, Richholt finally met her hero in person in what she called a “very special and very emotional” moment.
“The strength, bravery and selflessness of this woman will inspire me for the rest of my life. She is my beautiful angel. My soul sister,” Richholt wrote in a social media post.
“I hope to have the opportunity to repay Robyn and her family one day, but either way I promise I will pay it forward.”
In a three-day post-op update, Richholt said everything is “going really well” for both her and Ralph, and she’s feeling stronger and better every day.
“Thank you to all of you for all your ongoing love and support,” she wrote. “It has meant more to me than you will ever know.”
One of her biggest supporters was Kelowna Centre MLA Kristina Loewen, who also paid Richholt a visit in hospital over the weekend.
Friday’s liver transplant surgery is quite literally a new lease on life for Richholt, as doctors told her last spring that she only had months to live.
She needed the life-saving surgery to remedy her deteriorating health caused by a long battle with autoimmune hepatitis, and originally it looked like that surgery was coming late last year.
Richholt and her family travelled to Vancouver for the Dec. 10 procedure, but it was cancelled last minute after her donor was injured in a fall and no longer able to go through with the surgery.
While Richholt was still positive in updates around the holiday, family members said silence from BC Transplant in early 2026 had left the Kelowna woman “exhausted and losing the will to fight.”
Finally, on March 6, the new April 10 surgery date was set, five months after she was initially meant to go under the knife, and Richholt said she was feeling “a renewed sense of hope.”
While her pre-surgery plight is finally over, Richholt’s recovery journey is only just beginning and she will surely continue to advocate for improvements at BC Transplant to help others facing a similar situation to hers.
