“She Saved My Life” – Incredible Story From The Vancouver Canucks

It’s always nice to read a story with a happy ending, and we’ll finish this third week of January on a positive note.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened when the assistant manager of the Vancouver Canucks was warned of a possible cancerous mole by a hockey fan sitting behind him.

Back in November of last year, Seattle Kraken hosted the Vancouver Canucks and the Canucks assistant equipment manager, Brian Hamilton, was warned of a mole that a fan saw on the back of his neck.

Nadia Popovici, typed out the message, “the mole on the back of your neck is possibly cancerous. Please go see a doctor,” and pressed her phone up against the glass that separates the players and the fans.

As someone who had previously spent time volunteering in hospitals, and on the verge of going to medical school, Popovici noticed the dark spot on the back of Hamilton’s neck was discolored, raised, and had irregular borders: all potential signs of the skin cancer melanoma.

Hamilton had the mole removed and it was subsequently confirmed to be a melanoma tumor.

During a press conference, Hamilton said:

“She saved my life. The words out of the doctor’s mouth were if I ignored that for four to five years I wouldn’t be here. How she saw it boggles my mind. It wasn’t very big, I wear a jacket, I wear a radio on the back of my jacket. She’s a hero.”

She identified the melanoma using a method of identifications called the “ABCDE Rule”, and acronym for asymmetry, border, colour, dark, and evolving, five signs that anyone’s mole might be a common yet dangerous skin cancer.

The story doesn’t end there though, because after a social campaign to reunite the pair at the Canucks next game against Kraken, it was revealed during a commercial break that both teams had raised $10,000 to send Popovici medical school.

A fantastic end to a fantastic story, and it highlights once again the need for us all to check ourselves and check in on one another.