On October 23, Nadia Popovici was in glass-row seats behind the Vancouver Canucks for a piece of history - the first ever Seattle Kraken home game in Climate Pledge Arena.
The Kraken lost the historic game, 4-2, but it would turn out that victory in the form of human life was right around the corner. Spotting a cancerous mole on the back of Canucks assistant equipment manager Red Hamilton's neck and alerting him with a typed phone "notes" message of the mole, he followed with having the mole diagnosed and removed, confirmed as type-2 malignant melanoma, before the cancer could spread.
Hamilton returned to Seattle as the Canucks visited the Kraken on New Year's Day with a mission: find Nadia. Through a social media search via the Canucks, Nadia was found late Saturday morning, and connected in-person with an emotional meeting with Hamilton, at the game for the first time since the fateful evening in late October.
A videoboard tribute to Hamilton's return was followed by a salute to Popovici, who was then awarded $10,000 - a split gift from the Kraken and Canucks - for her medical school expenses.
Popovici, whose story has spread across the nation, joined host Mike Benton after the first period on 950 KJR and the Kraken Audio Network, to share more of her instant reaction and mission for the future.