Forty years of blacksmithing and shoeing horses had taken a toll on Bill Burley’s body. The rigours of such a physically demanding job had left him with aches and pains, until one day he sought out a solution.
“Being a horse farrier by trade, the body hurts,” Burley said. “So I made up some colloidal copper and started drinking it, and I was feeling a lot better.”
An essential nutrient for bodily health, copper can be toxic in large doses.
But colloidal copper — a non-toxic form of the element — has been associated for years with pain relief. Though not confirmed through clinical trials, many pain sufferers claim to get a reprieve from wearing copper bracelets or copper-infused clothing.
Left with a mud-like substance after mixing up his concoction, Burley combined the sludge with lard to make a kind of cream, trying it on his wife, Lise, who lives with fibromyalgia, a condition that impacts the muscles and soft tissue, leaving the sufferer with chronic pain, fatigue, sleep problems, and painful tender points or trigger points.
Just 20 minutes after application, Burley’s cream had not just reduced Lise’s pain, but eliminated it.
Over the next few months, as friends and clients tried the cream, those positive results repeated themselves.
“I said, ‘OK, I think I’ve got something,’” said Burley, who’s based out of Porcupine, just east of Timmins.
Burley started tweaking the formulation, removing parabens, playing with the colour, and trying out manufacturers, all the while gaining accolades for what fans called his “miracle cream.”
But it was a piece by a local TV news crew three years ago that changed the course of Burley’s entrepreneurial career. Looking to sell off some built-up inventory, Burley offered to donate $10 from each jar sold in the month of December to the Arthritis Society.
A crew came to film a spot for the evening news, the piece went national, and Burley’s business exploded.
He sold out of his inventory and cut a cheque for $5,000 to the Arthritis Society.
His product, Worlds Best Cream, is now found in more than 900 stores across Canada, including gas stations, pharmacies, gift stores, flower shops and more, and he’s just received an updated natural product number (NPN) through Health Canada, which is required licensing for products that claim to relieve pain.
Burley’s also signed a deal with Sabona, a U.S. company that produces copper bracelets, and completed a joint venture with Tommie Copper, which makes copper compression bandages. He’s now navigating the regulatory red tape so he can expand his reach beyond Canada’s borders.
“Regulatory work can be quite frustrating and costly,” said Burley, who dabbled in hydrogen fuel cells and biodiesels before developing his cream. “So, now we’re doing regulatory work in four countries,” including the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates.
Other products are on their way. He’s prototyped a muscle balm dubbed “Terminator,” which is getting positive feedback from the sports community, and his newest product is an anti-aging cream, now in development.
Since Worlds Best Cream has taken off, Burley has given up his stake in the farrier business, passing his client list to a new shoer based in Sault Ste. Marie.
