Our
Story
What do professional hockey, cows, and an attachment to home and community have to do with an analgesic cream? Well, a lot actually...
Our
Humble
Beginnings
When John Forde started his career as a registered massage therapist, his first real “gig” was working as a trainer with the Vancouver Canucks during their playoff run in 1993.
As John says, the main parts of his job involved hefting injured hockey players off the ice, working to rehab them to get them back on the ice as quickly as possible, and, oh yeah, helping to load a ton of hockey bags and hockey sticks onto the bus and (as his wife Carmen saw on all of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts!) eating a seemingly endless supply of pizza on the team bench or next to the penalty boxes! In all seriousness, John learned quickly how serious professional athletes are about getting back to the sport they love and that they would do almost anything to make that happen (topical analgesics, passive and active therapies, surgeries, and maybe a lucky charm or two wouldn’t hurt either!;).
Apollo
Clinic
Pan ahead to John’s private practice at the Apollo Clinic in Abbotsford, British Columbia starting in 1999 where his treatment demographic had expanded from professional athletes to include amateur athletes and people of all ages who were suffering from pain caused by a variety of ailments or injuries, and he was still reflecting upon his time with the Canucks, thinking about the best ways to get all of his patients back to the lives they loved in the safest and shortest time possible.
Well, here’s where the cows come in...
How
P3 Cream
Was Born ?
Entering from “stage left” was a long-time music buddy of John’s. Little did John know that he was actually a purveyor of a pain-relief cream used in the dairy industry.
He shared with John how it was an all-natural food-safe grade product that was actually used to reduce mastitis in cows but that the farmers who were applying it said that their hands were feeling great afterwards! John’s friend wondered aloud if there could be a human application for the cream. It wasn’t long before John was using his clinical expertise to work with the chemist who created the bovine analgesic to help reformulate a new all-natural essential oil- based cream specifically for the human population. P3 cream was born!
Our
Success Story
When you’re awesome, well, good news travels fast. From its humble beginnings only being used with John’s own patients, P3 cream has won its own fan club, expanding from the Apollo Clinic in Abbotsford to over 650 clinic, pharmacy, and retail locations across Canada.
With that sort of following, people might assume that P3 has morphed into some sort of huge corporation, but no. We are still down-home folk who still have an “old school” approach to doing business. P3 cream is still being produced in the Fraser Valley. John (the face of P3) is still using and promoting P3 cream with his patients at the Apollo Clinic and educating other clinicians and retailers within our local community and beyond about the benefits of using all-natural topical analgesics for pain management. Mike (our operations manager) is still cheerfully answering the phone to take your orders and answer questions (Yes, shockingly, a real human being answering the phone!). Carmen (John’s wife) is still pulling, packing, and shipping your orders. Hannah, Rhegan, and Declan (John and Carmen’s kids) are still putting stickers on containers and stacking boxes. And Buddy (the Fordes’ morbidly obese dog) is still guarding (er, while sleeping of course!) the P3 barn.
