When Nadia Popovici, a 22-year-old incoming medical student, went to the Seattle Kraken’s hockey team’s first home game, little did she know that she’d end up saving a man’s life and getting a nice $10,000 reward at the same time.
Eagle-eyed Popovici sat behind the visiting team’s bench, when she noticed a dangerous mole at the back of the neck of Brian (Red) Hamilton of the Vancouver Canucks. “I spotted some of the classic signs, you know, irregular borders, a little bit of discoloration and a pretty large diameter,” Popovici said to CBC News. “I thought, you know, it can’t hurt just to say something.”
Popovici wrote a note on her cell phone and held it up to the plexiglass behind the Canucks bench to tell Hamilton that his mole could possibly be cancerous. At first, Hamilton dismissed her note, but later he thought better of it and consulted their team doctor who confirmed that it was indeed a malignant melanoma. Left untreated, the mole could lead to a life-threatening condition.
The Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks jointly awarded Popovici a $10,000 scholarship for medical school as a show of their appreciation for Popovici’s good deed.
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Image: CBC News