Suspenders On: The Pact, the Promise, the Brother

Most men know when something isn't right. The problem is they often wait.

A checkup gets pushed to next month. A difficult conversation gets delayed. The little voice in the back of the head gets ignored until it can't be ignored anymore.

This June, the Canadian Men's Health Foundation is asking Canadians to get their Suspenders On — a simple visual reminder that men are never meant to carry everything alone. In this episode, Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with the men behind the campaign: Graham Love and John Armstrong of Armstrong Strategy Group, who built Suspenders On from the ground up, and Andrew Jackson of Jackson Events, who's helping rally NHL alumni and other Canadian athletes to put their suspenders on too.

The idea started six weeks before launch, in a brainstorm at the Armstrong office. Graham thought of his grandfather — a Glaswegian shipbuilder who wore suspenders so often the marks were on his back. The image stuck, the campaign followed.

What the conversation reveals is everything underneath it.

John Armstrong tells the story of a pact he made with a colleague who needed to see a doctor: if you go, I'll go. The appointment that followed caught John's prostate cancer in time.

Graham wears his suspenders for his brother Andrew, who died of liver cancer in 2022 and who Graham believes might still be here if anyone had nudged him sooner.

Andrew Jackson opens up about a friend who made him promise to see a doctor before he died of stomach cancer at 56, about losing hockey alumnus Claude Lemieux just days before recording, and about a moment in his own office when a colleague asked him what the hell is wrong with you, and he finally let it out.

Some of what they talk about:

The joke that captures the whole campaign: "Women go to the doctor for the same reason men don't; in case there's something wrong"
Why high performers in sports, business, and the trades are especially good at carrying things they shouldn't
The relief that arrives the moment a man finally says it out loud
How "I'll deal with it later" becomes the most dangerous sentence in men's health

Get your Suspenders On this June. Wear them. Share why. Donate. Invite others.

Tag @menshealthfdn #SuspendersOn #NeverAlone #MensHealthMonth

Donate to Suspenders On: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/canadian-mens-health-month/

Follow Armstrong Strategy Group

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/armstrong-strategy-group/

Follow Jackson Events

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jacksoneventsinc/

Follow Mike Cameron

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/

YouTube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/

Website - https://mikecameron.ca/