Close-Up Talk Radio spotlights Brian Campkin of Tin Man Enterprises

Whitby, Ontario – Brian Campkin was your typical middle-aged male – corporate entrepreneur, family man – when out of nowhere he was stricken with heart disease.

“I didn’t suffer from the typical indicators of heart disease like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. I wasn’t a smoker,” recalls Campkin.  “I was predisposed to heart disease simply because of my gene pool.”

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, for 50 percent of people diagnosed with heart disease, the first symptom is death. After life-saving triple-bypass surgery, Brian was given a second chance and resolved to make a difference.

Today, Campkin is a professional motivational speaker and founder of Tin Man Enterprises, leveraging the story of his journey with heart disease to encourage corporate wellness. Since March 2008, Brian has also served as an official spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada as its resident expert survivor.

“I speak on motivating wellness from two voices: a voice of prevention and the voice of a survivor,” says Campkin. “Everybody knows how to get healthy. They know how to do it and they know why. What they’re missing is who they can do it for. If you can’t get motivated for yourself, who can you get motivated for?”

Campkin says his ultimate goal is to be healthy enough to walk each of his three daughters down the aisle on their wedding day. He’s already accomplished that with his eldest daughter and recently celebrated the birth of his first grandson.

“I’m living proof that there’s life after the knife,” says Campkin. “If I can help one family not go through the pain and hardship that my family went through, then as a volunteer I have been overpaid.”