Kicker - A sideline diagnosis

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Nadia Popovici had great seats for a recent NHL game between the Seattle Kraken and Vancouver Canucks. And that seemingly insignificant fact may have saved someone’s life.

Popovici was seated right behind the Canucks bench and directly behind assistant equipment manager Brian Hamilton.

She told CBC News what happened.

POPOVICI: He reached over and the back of the lapel of his jacket kind of came down, and I caught sight of his mole right in front of me.

Turns out, she’d worked in a cancer clinic. That’s why she noticed a suspicious blemish on the back of his neck that most people would never notice.

Popovici banged on the plexiglass to get Hamilton’s attention. Then she held up her phone with a message: "The mole on the back of your neck is possibly cancerous. Please go see a doctor!"

HAMILTON: I didn’t know I had a mole on my neck. I didn’t know it even existed.

Well, it was a malignant melanoma. It’s now been surgically removed.

As a hearty thank you, the Kraken and Canucks presented Popivici with a $10,000 medical school scholarship.

MYRNA BROWN: A win-win-win!

REICHARD: Kinda like a hat trick in hockey, right? Or something like that.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.