This weekend, John Mirrione will try to set a pair of world records for doing push-ups. The next day, he'll undergo major cancer surgery. They're both fights that he's ready to take on – and win, he told Patch.
"This is how I turn adversity into power," the national anti-bullying advocate asserted.
Mirrione, a former U.S. Congress candidate in Essex, Hudson and Union counties, has taken on world records before. The martial artist and Air Force veteran has previously set benchmarks for performing one arm/one leg push-ups and holding a bare knuckle position on a stone block.
But this time is different for Mirrione, who is facing a Stage 3 prostate cancer diagnosis at the age of 61.
Mirrione has been motivating kids and teens across the Tri-State Area for years, both through his New York City-based studio, Harmony By Karate and its charity arm, the Harmony Power Foundation. He spearheaded the launch of the first mandated anti-bullying program in a major U.S. city – Elizabeth – an initiative that reached thousands of students.
Through this work, Mirrione has pushed youth across North Jersey to reach within themselves and find the strength to fight back against their fears, to dig deep and keep pushing forward.
Now, it will be his turn to stand up to a bully… cancer.
Mirrione's recent diagnosis will ramp up the difficulty for an already demanding feat that he plans to accomplish this Sunday at the Harmony By Karate Studio in Manhattan, when he will attempt a 17-second one-arm stone-block push-up hold/pull with his arm held at 90 degrees, one leg off the ground, and his weight supported on his top two bare knuckles. He will perform the feat with both his left and right arms – 17 on each arm – as a nod to the 34 percent of children who are bullied in school.
It will be a grueling physical test of endurance, as seen in previous "bare knuckle" challenges that Mirrione has performed.
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Mirrione has explained that his world record attempts aren't only personal milestones: they're metaphors.
Performing bare-knuckle push-ups on concrete, a surface as unyielding as the challenges faced by bullied children, sends a clear message to kids, he said: "Resilience is born through adversity."
"These records were about showing children that no matter how difficult life may seem, there is strength inside of them waiting to be discovered," Mirrione previously told Patch. "I want this to be a beacon of hope for kids who feel alone, unheard or afraid."
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