Medical student alerts hockey team staff about mole on neck and saves his life. Photo: Instagram Screenshot
The medical student warned a hockey team assistant about the mole on his neck: “Please go see a doctor.”
In 2020, Nadia Popovici was watching her first hockey game, a match between the Vancouver Canucks and the Seattle Kraken, when she noticed a mole on the neck of Brian Hamilton, the Canucks’ assistant equipment manager.
The medical student immediately realized that the mole on Hamilton’s neck could be a melanoma, so she wrote a message on her phone and pressed it against the plexiglass, the protective acrylic barrier separating the audience from the rink.
“The mole on the back of your neck is possibly cancerous,” Popovici wrote. “Please go see a doctor!”
Thanks to her experience as a volunteer in oncology wards, the student recognized the potential danger of the mole and was able to warn Hamilton, who took her advice seriously. He ended up having the mole removed, and after a biopsy, it was confirmed to be a malignant melanoma type 2, a skin cancer that is treatable if caught early.
Hamilton used the Canucks’ social media to tell his story and also to try to find Popovici: “I’m trying to find a very special person… who changed my life,” he wrote. “That night, October 23, and the message you showed me on your phone will forever be etched in my brain and made a truly transformative difference for me and my family.”
“To the woman I’m trying to find, you changed my life, and now I want to find you to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! The problem is, I don’t know who you are or where you’re from… we are looking for this incredible person… help us find a real-life hero, so I can express my heartfelt gratitude.”
Hamilton’s appeal quickly worked, and the medical student was soon found, allowing the two to finally meet. To complete this chain of kindness and as a form of recognition, the Canucks and Kraken joined forces to offer Popovici a $10,000 scholarship for her college expenses.
This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
