Seattle Kraken fan Nadia Popvici was watching her team play the Vancouver Canucks from her regular seat behind the away team’s bench when she noticed someone from the Canucks had an irregular shaped mole on the back of their neck. The 22-year-old pre-med student says the mole caught her eye as the man walked across the bench between periods. "I spotted some of the classic signs, you know, irregular borders, a little bit of discoloration and a pretty large diameter," Popovici says. "I thought, you know, it can't hurt just to say something."
So Popovici made a note on her phone and held it up to the plexiglass that separated her from the player’s bench and alerted the man to the possibly deadly mole. The man, it turns out, is Brian “Red” Hamilton, the Canucks’ assistant equipment manager, and he says he initially didn’t think much of Popovici’s note, but did ask the team doctor took a look at the mole and he determined it was a malignant melanoma that would be life-threatening if left untreated. "She saved my life," Hamilton says. "She didn't take me out of a burning car, but she took me out of a slow fire."
The Canucks posted on Twitter looking for Hamilton’s hero and pretty soon she was found with some help from the #LadiesOfTheKraken Facebook group. Popovici attended the Kraken’s home game against the Canucks on Saturday and met up with Hamilton before the game. Hamilton thanked his savior in person and they shared a hug that was broadcast on the jumbotron. And then mid-game the two teams made an announcement thanking Popovici again and telling everyone that they were giving her $10-thousand toward her schooling to reward her for her good deed.