When My Ophthalmologist Saw Me on TV

by Ian Hawk MacLeod

Last week I went in for a routine appointment with my ophthalmologist. Because of GVHD, a side effect of a bone marrow transplant is I can no longer produce tears. So, I see her every couple of weeks for a specialty lens.

This time, she walked in with a smile that felt different. She said, “I saw you on TV.”
We laughed. But she insisted: “Yes, my mother and I were watching a movie, and when your face came on the screen, I told her, that’s my patient!”

It turns out she had seen the City of Hope commercial I filmed with my mom almost a year and a half ago. I wasn’t behind the camera, but appearing in front as a cancer survivor. Since then, I’ve had friends from Phoenix gyms, Chicago living rooms, even the Pickleball Channel … reach out to say they’d spotted me. What struck me most wasn’t the recognition itself, but what she shared next. Her son had overheard her story and said: “He looks really kind.”

That stayed with me.

The truth is, in that commercial I wasn’t “acting.” I wasn’t even looking at the camera … I was smiling off-camera at a real nurse I’ve seen on campus many times before. I was simply mirroring back what I’ve received countless times from nurses and caregivers: hope, compassion, and kindness.

So when her son said I looked kind, it felt like a reflection of that exchange. Not that I was a filmmaker. Not that I’d been in a commercial. But that, through a screen, to someone who has never met me, I came across as kind.

That, to me, is everything.

It reminded me of my mom, who was in that video with me, and from whom I learned that kindness. Kindness is the most powerful legacy we leave. More than our titles or accomplishments, it’s how we show up in small, human ways that lasts.

Because kindness, when it’s rooted in self-love, is something everyone has to give.