Hockey Fan Spots Cancerous Mole On Staff Member’s Neck At Game

A prospective medical student has been awarded a $10,000 scholarship after spotting a cancerous mole on the neck of a staff member during a hockey game and showing him a message on her phone, telling him to see a doctor.

Brian “Red” Hamilton is the equipment manager for the Vancouver Canucks NHL team and was working behind the bench for their game against the newly-formed Seattle Kraken in October when he noticed a fan trying to get his attention. Kraken fan Nadia Popovici showed him a message on her phone, telling him he should see a doctor about the mole on his neck as she suspected it could be cancerous.

Hamilton, concentrating on the game at the time, briefly nodded in acknowledgement before continuing his work, but later asked the team doctor to take a look at the mole. The doctor echoed Popovici’s concern and Hamilton quickly made an appointment to have the mole removed and analyzed.

When the results came back, Hamilton was told that he had type 2 malignant melanoma, but because the mole had been spotted early enough, all the cancer had been removed and he was cancer-free.

On Saturday, the Vancouver Canucks put out a message on Twitter from Hamilton, who was trying to find the fan he credits with “saving his life.”

Popovici was quickly found thanks to a social media storm and the timing was perfect, as the Canucks were due to play her team the Kraken in Seattle that evening, a game which she was already attending. Popovici and Hamilton were able to meet at the game, with Hamilton thanking her for her persistence in trying to get his attention and for alerting him to the cancerous mole.

Popovici is an aspiring medical student and learned about skin cancers while volunteering at an oncology center, according to The Seattle Times. During a commercial break at the game on Saturday, it was announced that both hockey teams had come together to award Popovici a $10,000 scholarship towards her tuition.

“Nadia made such an impact on ‘Red’ Hamilton and her actions have touched many people at both the Kraken and Canucks organizations,” said Katie Townsend, Vice President of Communications for the Seattle Kraken . “We wanted to show our gratitude and respect with a small gesture to help start her college career and so came together to gift her $10,000. She had both the knowledge and the courage to speak up and we are proud she is a part of the Kraken community,” added Townsend.

Hamilton’s cancer was removed before it could spread and will not require any further treatment, but according to a doctor in Seattle, more people are getting diagnosed with more advanced forms of the disease.

“We are seeing some melanoma patients diagnosed later than normal because the pandemic led to a delay in getting evaluated,” said Sylvia Lee, MD, Medical Oncologist in the melanoma clinic at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. “With melanoma (and other cancers), the chances for cure are higher if we catch it early,” added Lee, also an associate professor at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington.

If you, or someone you know has a mole, how can you tell if it is harmless or concerning to warrant being checked out by a doctor?

“We have a great system, actually, called the A, B, C, D, E’s of melanoma to help guide people on whether they should alert their doctor to a mole,” said Lee.

The A, B, C, D, E’s of melanoma

A=asymmetry of a spot,

B=border is irregular rather than smooth

C=color is unusually dark or looks multicolored (darker than the rest of the person’s moles, or has blue, black or mottled pigmentation, for example),

D=diameter (the mole is larger than the head of a pencil eraser),

E=evolution (the mole is changing in features, such as growing, changing color, becoming itchy, becoming raised, bleeding and not healing).

“Evolution is the most worrisome, but having any of the A, B, C, D, E’s should prompt someone to show the lesion to their doctor as soon as possible because you want to catch it early,” said Lee.

During the ongoing pandemic, many people have put off going to see their doctors about health issues which they might consider of low importance, but Lee urges people to get any concerning moles checked out and says that an in-person visit may not always be necessary.

“Phone cameras can produce great photos, so even during the pandemic when patients are trying to stay at home, they could schedule a telehealth appointment with their doctor and email a photo under good lighting, ideally with a ruler in the picture to provide a sense of scale, if they are concerned about coming into clinic,” said Lee.

The majority of melanomas can be treated by surgical removal only, but if left for too long they can spread deeper into skin or to other areas of the body, requiring more intensive treatment.

“The longer a melanoma remains on someone’s skin, the more time it has to start spreading to nearby lymph nodes and then to distant areas in the body, at which point, we can’t remove it and cure it completely by surgery anymore. We still have excellent treatments for melanoma after it has spread, but our best chance to cure it is to catch it early before it spreads,” said Lee.