Canuck staffer saved from cancer thanks to Kraken fan - The Province

Brian “Red” Hamilton discovered a malignant melanoma on his neck after a Seattle Kraken fan got his attention during an October NHL game.

Author of the article:

Patrick Johnston

Publishing date:

Jan 01, 2022 • 16 minutes ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation

Vancouver Canucks Equipment Manager Pat O’Neill (left) and Brian Hamilton, Assistant Equipment Manager prior to playing Ottawa Senators in NHL hockey at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC, January 27, 2021. Hamilton discovered a malignant melanoma on his neck after a Seattle Kraken fan got his attention during an October NHL game. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

Vancouver Canucks assistant equipment manager Brian Hamilton didn’t realize he had a cancerous growth on his neck until he visited Seattle in October.

But an eagle-eyed fan sitting behind the Canucks’ bench for the Kraken’s inaugural home game on Oct. 23 at Climate Pledge Arena saw something that concerned her.

And now Hamilton wants to say thanks to her, and let the world know the story.

After the Canucks shared a message on social media Saturday morning asking for help in tracking down the woman, it didn’t take long for word to spread and for the team and her family to connect.

“I’m happy that story’s there, not for me, but for her because the world needs to know that this woman exists, and she’s a hero, and we need to celebrate her and people like her,” Hamilton said on Saturday.

About an hour after the Canucks posted the message to Twitter, a reply came in suggesting the family of Nadia Popovici was looking to make contact. The team was able to speak with her and Popovici was able to meet Hamilton before Saturday’s game.

Popovici was sitting behind the bench and got Hamilton’s attention as he was rearranging iPads, gloves and extra skate blades between periods at that October game.

Popovici had written a note on her phone that said she was concerned about a mole she’d noticed on his neck. She made the text on the screen large and colourful, obviously hoping he’d notice it. He finally saw it but didn’t think much of it initially.

“It had irregular borders and it was discoloured and fairly large,” Popovici, 22, told Postmedia Saturday.

Popovici’s going into medical school next fall — she’s been accepted by several schools but hasn’t chosen one yet — and had spent some time helping out in an oncology ward, so she was familiar with what cancers like Hamilton’s look like.

Popovici was at the October game with her mom. She and her mom, Yukyung, are lifelong Canucks fans, though they have thrown their hockey dollars into Kraken tickets since the NHL arrived.

“My mom is a huge Canucks fan, a huge Canucks fan before the Kraken,” Popovici said.

It was a special thrill for them to be behind the Canucks’ bench for the Kraken’s home opener.

“We were going back and forth on what jersey to wear,” Popovici said, admitting they settled on the home team’s colours that night.

“But I’m a Canucks fan, I’ve cheered for them forever.”

Popovici and her family lived in Vancouver before her parents split up and she and her mom moved south to Washington. A dual citizen, she graduated from the University of Washington in 2019.

Hamilton told reporters Saturday that Popovici “changed his life.”

“She extended my life. I’ve got a wonderful family, a wonderful daughter. She saved my life. She didn’t take me out of a burning car — like a big story — but she took me out of a slow fire,” he said.

“I want you all to know that this isn’t about me. It’s about an incredible person taking the time to notice something concerning and then finding a way to point it out during the chaos of a hockey game. Going to great lengths to get my attention from the stands while I did my job on the Canucks bench,” he said in his original message.

Hamilton said the message Popovici to relayed to him on her phone will forever be etched in his mind, even if he didn’t process it at first.

“Her persistence is what saved my life.”

Hamilton, 47, said the message from Popovici lingered in his mind. Once he was back home in Vancouver, he asked his wife Jess to look at the mole and she agreed it looked unusual.

He was amazed the Seattle fan had seen it in the first place, given he’s always wearing a jacket and an earpiece that would partly obstruct the mole.

Three days later he talked to Canucks’ team doctor Dr. Jim Bovard, who agreed the mole looked concerning and took a biopsy. Within days, it had been completely removed by a specialist, who said it was cancerous — a malignant melanoma.

The specialist told Hamilton that the melanoma hadn’t penetrated far into his skin, but it would have been a life-threatening situation if he had neglected it for another few years,

“It’s a pretty surreal phone call.”

Hamilton was thrilled about the idea of meeting Popovici. The Canucks invited her to the arena early on Saturday so she could meet Hamilton and have dinner with him.

“I’m so happy his wife encouraged him to get the mole checked out,” Popovici said.

Hamilton said he hoped his message would prompt others to be aware of blemishes or moles on their skin.

Hamilton, born-and-raised in Richmond and now a Langley resident, has worked more than 1,000 games over the last two decades for the Canucks after spending more than a decade working for the B.C. Lions.

[email protected]

twitter.com/risingaction