This is so cool. Glad she was rewarded with $10,000 towards her medical education. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/03/1069935191/canucks-manager-skin-cancer-fan-scholarship An NHL staffer had a cancerous mole removed after a fan of the opposing team spotted it from the stands and urged him to get it checked out. He now credits her with saving his life, and the teams are awarding her a scholarship for medical school this fall. It all began on Oct. 23, at the Seattle Kraken's first-ever home game against the Vancouver Canucks, according to the league. Brian "Red" Hamilton, an assistant equipment manager for the Canucks, was clearing off the bench when a young woman seated nearby noticed a suspicious mole on the back of his neck. Kraken fan and Tacoma resident Nadia Popovici, 22, recognized the irregular mole from her time volunteering in hospitals (the 2019 University of Washington graduate plans to start medical school this fall). Wanting to warn Hamilton but wary of making him uncomfortable, she typed a note in large font on her phone and pressed it against the glass: "The mole on the back of your neck is possibly cancerous. Please go see a doctor!" While Hamilton later said he initially "didn't give her the time of day," he asked his wife to take a look the next morning and she noted its weird shape. The team physician also didn't like the look of the mole, and removed it within days. A biopsy revealed malignant melanoma in situ 2, meaning the cancer was only on the outer layer of the skin — and was detected before it could become even more dangerous. "She didn't take me out of a burning car like the big stories, but she took me out of a slow fire. And the words out of the doctor's mouth were, if I ignored that for four to five years I wouldn't be here," he said at a press conference on Saturday. Hamilton wanted to thank the person who had set the chain of events in motion, but didn't know her identity. So the Canucks posted a call-out on social media on Saturday, asking hockey fans to help Hamilton connect with "the woman he considers his hero." "That evening, Oct. 23, and the message you showed me on your cell phone will forever be etched into my brain and has made a true life-changing difference for me and my family," Hamilton's letter reads. "Your instincts were right and that mole on the back of my neck was a malignant melanoma and thanks to your persistence and the quick work of our doctors, it is now gone.".....(CONTINUED)
