THUNDER BAY — When Alan Forbes, co-owner of Bay Village Coffee, felt chest pains, he recognized the signs of a heart attack and promptly went to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre for help. After eight days, he was released with a clean bill of health.
Forbes, who owns the coffee shop with Gary Mack, survived a heart attack in May 2023 and is well-versed in heart care. Over the years, Bay Village Coffee has been a leader in advocating for awareness and funding for the hospital’s cardiac centre, which enables local patients to remain in Thunder Bay for treatment rather than having to travel to Toronto.
The coffee shop recently hosted a day-long visit from Dr. Alexandra Bastiany, who is recognized as Canada’s first black female interventional cardiologist.
Forbes pointed out that during Black History Month in 2023, Bastiany was honoured with a doll in her image.
“She is a regular customer and brought us one of her dolls,” Forbes said. “We were so excited and we have her doll sitting up on display in the coffee shop. It generates a lot of interest and we’ve been able to talk about her and tell her story.”
He said Bastiany wanted to come and be a little bit more active and get involved in making the cookies, serving them and selling them.
“We suggested that she should come and work here one day and it turned out that she had always wanted to be a barista because it would be fun to do,” he said.
Bastiany spent time “training” at the coffee shop in preparation for a return visit to work there for one day during February, which is heart and stroke month. She spent several hours serving customers and reminding everyone about the upcoming Our Hearts at Home Cookie Campaign next month.
Working beside her, Forbes made sure to tell his friends and customers about the tremendous care and support that he received while at the regional hospital.
“They took such good care of me that they sent me back to work with my own cardiologist,” he laughed.
Meanwhile, the coffee shop is gearing up for the annual cookie campaign, which will run through the entire month of February.
Bastiany will return for one day to bake cookies, pour coffee and serve their customers.
“We’re going to be selling cookies for $7 each - with half the proceeds going to the Our Hearts at Home campaign," he said, adding they have already raised more than $40,000. “We’re hoping to raise $50,000 this year.”
Sam Romeo of Burmet Northern Limited also visited the coffee shop and met with Bastiany. He was so impressed by the cookie campaign and its purpose that he gave them their first $1,000 towards this year’s $10,000 goal. With the donation, Romeo challenged all area contractors to match or beat his donation.
Forbes said since going through his heart attack, the whole cookie campaign has come full circle for him.
"We began the campaign to honour our friend Patti Hobbs, and last year, we presented the cookie campaign proceeds to the hospital on March 31,” said Forbes.
“One month after that I was in the hospital with a heart attack — and I was in the room next to the room that we had dedicated to Patti. That was such an eye-opener because I never expected that I would be the one to need that service. They actually used equipment on me that was purchased with this funding.”
Forbes says he wants to remind people that heart disease and heart attack can hit very close to home.
“I’m young. I didn’t expect to be having a heart attack. But if I had been one of those people that had to be shipped away, that would have been so incredibly hard on me,” he said. “We need to be able to have this surgery here.”
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
