A man who ultimately lost his heart in Bermuda after a life changing aortic aneurysm at the young age of 15 will be featured as the artist whose work will raise funds in the battle for healthy hearts in Bermuda.

February 1 marks the official start of Heart Month by the Bermuda Heart Foundation.

The one day Heart Art Showcase, a Pulse Art Exhibition will be held today at Rock Island Coffee on Reid Street, Hamilton.

Ken Winford, who moved here from Toronto in 2006 to marry his Bermudian wife Lyn who ultimately captured the heart that nearly gave out on him.

Born and raised in Halifax, Ontario, he sustained an accidental wound that transformed him through a life-changing experience.

While building a treehouse with his brothers he accidentally chopped his knee open with an old rusty axe.

Ironically, the knee injury led to a flesh eating disease that led to more heart problems.

He suffered an aortic anuerism in October 1979 and was later told by doctors that without the encounter and his heart defect he would have eventually died by the time he reached his mid 30s.

It all happened in a short span of three to four weeks. A self-professed school jock at the time, heavily involved in track and field, volleyball, football and lacrosse he found himself laid out flat in the fight for his life.

“I got extremely sick and for weeks I was being tested for bronchitis, pneumonia, gastritis, leukaemia, everything,” said Mr Winford.

When asked to help doctors understand what was wrong with him, one doctor asked if there was any other part of his body that was hurting him apart from the knee injury.

“I said yes, my big toe hurts, it felt like I stubbed it.” On examination he said the top of his toe was black.

“I had developed necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease), which caused the aortic aneurysm.

“The fortunate thing about getting the flesh eating disease, which is enough to kill you on its own, was that it also lodged or let itself into the shrinkage area where the birth defect was.

“Over time it ate a hole at the aortic shrinkage area to cause an anuerism,” he said.

All of this after being born with a birth defect that no one picked up on until he chopped his knee with an axe.

“A few real smart doctors, nurses, personal care workers and family brought me through something I was pretty much oblivious too.

“They went in, they gave me a needle, they opened up my chest to cut the infected area out and put in a piece of cardiac tubing,” he said.

“That was a seven-hour operation after submerging me in ice and everything else to bring my heart rate down as fast as possible. They said I was minutes away from being dead.

In mid December 2013 he celebrated his 50th birthday convinced that “life keeps getting better”.

The tube inserted remains in his chest to this day.

Asked what does an anuerism feel like he replied: “I only felt chest pain, I felt pressure building in my chest area because the blood was seeping out of my aorta into my chest. I wouldn’t know what a heart attack feels like.”

But when asked how this experience had changed him and his perspective on life he said he was hardly aware of the magnitude of it all back then. That life-changing view didn’t develop until years later.

“It just kind of the realisation that we’re living on borrowed time, like the reality of life. They said I would have died of a massive heart attack if I didn’t have this problem.

Later in his adult years he started painting with no formal training with the exception of a course at the Art Gallery of Ontario, a mixed- media class he developed a love for painting.

The assignment was to create and print a stamp image, four or five pencil strokes later he said: “There was a Chilli Heart, four interlocked chambers expressing the spice of life”.

That was 15 years ago and when his wife approached the Bermuda Heart Foundation plans for his first exhibit started from there.

The end product of that journey begins today from 6pm to 10pm.

Proceeds will go to the foundation and already, all the large paintings on display have been sold already. At $500 a piece the artwork has raised nearly $5,000 already.

Said Mr Winford: “I’ve been surrounded by great friends and family and had the good fortune to marry the love of my life!

So for some reason I have had an affinity towards the heart. Go figure! I’m truly a very fortunate man.

“I’ve always had an affinity for the heart, I’ve done other paintings related to the heart but this is an image I made on my own. It’s something I see value in now that I can take forward.

“I’m very pleased to have something to give something back to the community and work with the foundation. As I get older I’m realising the importance of it and giving back to the community. That’s really the story.”

Admittedly he said: “It’s human nature not to appreciate things we take for granted until we lose or nearly lose it.

“It’s all preventable, a lot of it comes down to your lifestyle and exercise to stop some things that we can prevent.

“Unfortunately, life is very busy and we live in very stressful times. We get exhausted mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted and it’s very easy to take the route of a less healthy lifestyle.

“Bermuda is no any different than any other place, more healthy foods are not as readily available and the choices we make obviously have a cause and effect. It’s an individual choice,” he said.

“I’m trying to contribute to the foundation so they could work their message. For me the fitness part of it and sports have always been a part of my life, right from the time I was four-years-old.

“I’ve sports nationally and internationally and I’ve represented Bermuda at the world LaCrosse Championships and hope to do it again this year in Denver.

“I have to admit there are really bad days or bad months or tough months or stressful periods when you just don’t feel like it and it’s very difficult.”