'Be like mike': St. Michael's Hospital Foundation Launches New Campaign Celebrating the People at the Heart of Canadian Healthcare

Who is mike? Not a person, but a mindset: compassionate, innovative, committed, relentless.

TORONTO, Sept. 24, 2026 /CNW/ -- JUNO Award-winning musician Haviah Mighty was 33 when she had life-saving heart surgery at St. Michael's Hospital. Recovering in the ICU, she could hear her surgeon checking in on patient after patient. "I was in disbelief that he was just saving lives back to back to back," she says.

But it wasn't just what the St. Mike's team did that moved her. It was how they did it. Dr. Gianluigi Bisleri took an interest in her life--her music, her career, the world she had built and wanted to keep building. He was committed to helping her return to all of it.

At the centre of the campaign is a 90-second film directed by Hubert Davis, built on the real experiences of St. Mike’s staff and patients.

Months later, Haviah is back at St. Mike's. This time, not as a patient but a partner. She stands alongside Dr. Bisleri to help launch be like mike, a new brand campaign from St. Michael's Hospital Foundation. Her viral song 'Trendsetter' with Connor Price is the soundtrack to the launch film.

The campaign is built on stories like hers, and on the instinct and resolve that set St. Mike's apart. It's an invitation for Canadians to stand behind the hospital.

Who is mike?

Not a single person, but an entire community. Be like mike captures the collective mindset that drives every staff member, donor, and patient advocate at St. Mike's to be compassionate, innovative, relentless, and committed in the moments that matter. It gives a name to the spirit that has defined the hospital for generations.

At its core, be like mike expresses a simple but powerful idea: who we are is why we can.

The campaign arrives at a time when public trust in institutions is fragile, yet trust in frontline healthcare workers has never been stronger. New research commissioned by St. Michael's Hospital Foundation found that 91% of Canadians rank frontline healthcare workers as the single most trusted voice acting in the public's best interest, above government and business.

At St. Mike's, that trust is earned every day, by people who believe exceptional care should never come with exceptions.

"We hear it again and again. There's 'something different' about St. Mike's," says Kevin Goldthorp, President and CEO of St. Michael's Hospital Foundation. "It's a belief among our staff and supporters that there is always more we can do, more we can discover, and more we can give to every patient. Be like mike gives us a shared language for that ethos, and a way to invite others into it. A way to express not only what we do, but who we are."

Real stories behind be like mike

The people of St. Mike's and its community give be like mike its meaning.

Gavin Higgs is one of them. Rushed to St. Mike's with a broken neck and facing a high-risk spinal operation, he asked his surgeon, Dr. Howard Ginsberg, "Do you have this?" Dr. Ginsberg's answer: "I've got this." After surgery and a long recovery, Gavin found himself drawn back to the place that saved his life, this time as a committed donor, volunteer, and advocate.

For trauma surgeon Dr. Najma Ahmed, mike is the courage the job demands when the stakes are highest. On July 22, 2018, the night of the Danforth shooting, she was getting ready for bed when the Code Orange came. She rushed to St. Mike's and operated through the night. "We saved lives that night," she says. "Every day, we show up to fight for every patient who deserves every possible chance."

For neurosurgeon Dr. Vitor Mendes Pereira, mike is innovation that widens access to care, a focus that recently culminated in a world-first remote robotic-assisted neurovascular procedure. "Medicine is not only about what we can do, but about who we can reach," he says.

A film from the frontlines of care

At the centre of the campaign is a 90-second film directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis, built on the real experiences of St. Mike's staff and patients. In it, a young man wakes in the hospital after an injury and discovers that everyone caring for him--the nurses, the doctors, the surgeons--share the same mindset. The film captures the urgency of trauma care, the ambition of surgical innovation, the impact of philanthropy, and the humanity that runs through every floor of the hospital.

How Canadians can support be like mike

Be like mike invites the public to stand behind the people of St. Michael's Hospital, most directly by supporting the Foundation, whose donors fund the research, equipment, and care that make moments like Haviah's and Gavin's possible. Every gift made at belikemike.ca advances this life-changing work.

There are other ways to take part, too:

• mike Drop: Purchase a limited-edition mike hat, available at belikemike.ca. 
• Open mike: A public storytelling platform inviting Canadians to share their own St. Michael's Hospital experiences on social using #belikemike and @stmichaelsfdn

Film assets, photography and broadcast-quality b-roll, including cutdowns, are available upon request. To attend our media event at 12PM/ET on September 24, please call or email the media contacts below.

Join us. Visit belikemike.ca. 

About St. Michael's Hospital Foundation 

St. Michael's Hospital Foundation has a bold vision: Exceptional care. For everyone. In every critical moment. Without exception. Driven by a passionate community of donors and volunteers, we empower our health teams to advance excellence, drive innovation, and champion equity. Our supporters fund groundbreaking research, life-saving equipment, state-of-the-art spaces and efforts that uplift our most marginalized community members.

Survey Methodology 

These findings are from a survey commissioned by St. Michael's Hospital Foundation from May 26th to May 28th, 2026, among a representative sample of 1,502 online adult Canadians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. The survey was conducted in English and French. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/-2.53 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

SOURCE St. Michael's Hospital Foundation

Media Contacts: Madeline Stephenson, [email protected] or 416.831.8794, AVP, Marketing and Communications, St. Michael's Hospital Foundation; Tanny Chiu, [email protected], Senior Account Manager, Narrative XPR