In last October, when the Vancouver Canucks were playing the Seattle Kraken in Seattle, the assistant equipment manager for the Canucks, Brian “Red” Hamilton, heard someone beating on the glass behind the bench.
Nadia Popovici was doing it, but she wasn’t doing it as part of any cheer; she was doing it because she wanted to convey an essential message to him. At first, Hamilton paid little attention to what she had to say, however, she would not give up and kept beating on the plexiglas in an attempt to catch his attention.
On January 1, 2022, some months after the event, Hamilton told reporters on a Zoom call that “she placed her phone up to the glass and on the phone it stated, ‘The mole on the back of your neck is cancer.'”
Hamilton explained his response by saying, “It sort of just caught me off, so I kind of just shrugged and continued going.” On the other hand, when he got back to Vancouver the day after the game, he questioned his wife and the team doctor about whether or not he had a mole on his neck.
After a week had passed, the pathology report from the mole biopsy revealed that the growth in question was a malignant melanoma. However, as a result of the early discovery of the malignancy, Hamilton does not have cancer.
He wanted to express his gratitude to his unexpected guardian angel but was unsure how to get in touch with her.
Because of this, he recruited the assistance of the Vancouver Canucks, who published a letter on several social media platforms on his behalf. They were able to track Popovici out within two hours of the letter’s first publication and make contact with her.
The next day, the club made arrangements for Hamilton to express his gratitude to Popovici in person at the hockey game that took place on January 1 in Seattle.
She said that in October, after she had attached her phone to the plexiglass, she began to question whether or not she had made the appropriate decision.
“I had the impression that maybe, you know, it was just something that was wrong for me to do. I really tried to handle things in the most delicate manner possible. I checked to make sure that no one else was really watching or nearby.”
In addition, as a gesture of gratitude, the Seattle Kraken and the Vancouver Canucks will each contribute $10,000 toward Popovici’s educational expenses.