Rod Lowet stands with Vancouver Canucks forward Trevor Linden following a team practice last month at GM Place in Vancouver. (Submitted photo by Kathleen Watkins)
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All of a sudden, the 15-year-old's life was in danger. Rather than studying math and biology, Lowet was occupying a bed at Children's Hospital in Vancouver for a significant portion of his Grade 9 year at Brookswood secondary school in Langley, his hometown. It was, indeed, a dark period of Lowet's life - until the day he met Trevor Linden of the Vancouver Canucks. "They gave me a 30-per-cent chance of living," said Lowet, who is now 26 and living in Prince George. "I was in Children's Hospital for just about two months. Trevor came and saw me." The year was 1996. Pavel Bure was the star of the show, but Linden, who served as captain at the time, was the inspirational leader of the Canucks. The centre was traded to the New York Islanders in 1998, bounced between Montreal and Washington for a few years, then wound up back in a Canucks uniform in 2001. He is now an assistant captain. "The big one that stood out was Trevor," Lowet said. "I think Kirk McLean was there, but Trevor was the one that came down and sat with me for a while. I was really, really sick, I was half there. I remember vaguely about us having a conversation." Lowet's liver condition was as mysterious as the Bermuda triangle, completely baffling doctors. His case eventually grabbed the attention of experts at Boston University. "They looked for a liver transplant and it was a failure, they couldn't match. All of a sudden I just got better. They had no clue what it was. When I was a kid I was taking this acne medication, and they thought maybe that could have been it. So Boston University took the study on for this medication and nothing came out of it." Despite his lengthy hospital stay, Lowet passed Grade 9. He moved to Prince George about five years ago and earned a forestry degree at UNBC. He recently became a Prince George firefighter and is engaged to be married in May. Last month, during a trip with a buddy to Vancouver, Lowet met Linden following a Canucks morning skate at GM Place. He must have been a good luck charm because Linden scored a goal that night against the Detroit Red Wings. "The whole day was just fantastic, we met (Roberto) Luongo and a whole bunch of guys," said Lowet, adding Linden "vaguely" remembered his face from their first meeting. "He was talking to (Chris) Chelios, and him and Chelios were having this big discussion. It seemed kind of heated. So when he came up to me, it was kind of like, 'Oh, another autograph.' And then when I said we met before he was just a total other person, like, 'Oh my God, how are you doing?' "I told him the story and he thought that was great because a lot of kids, they don't make it. It was one of his first times he heard a story about a kid actually making it. "Then he signed my jersey. Since then I've contacted him. I wrote Trevor a letter and I'm waiting. In a few years we're going to talk about doing a fundraiser maybe up in Prince George with some of the NHL players - towards the Children's Hospital, obviously."
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