In 2019, Nathan Tirey was one of the tens-of-thousands of people diagnosed with blood cancer in the U.S. He developed chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of leukemia among adults, but he was determined to prevent the disease from slowing him down. While participating in a clinical trial at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), Tirey committed to completing one push-up to honor each person diagnosed with blood cancer in 2020 — an average of nearly 500 push-ups each day. “The goal is to bring awareness to blood cancer, and the number of push-ups really drives home just how many people are affected,” said Tirey. “I have cancer, but I’m not going to let that change who I am. I’m going to put one foot in front of the other and fight it every day, and the push-ups are symbolic of that.” Nathan recorded his daily pushup sessions and uploaded the videos to his YouTube channel, Pushing Through Cancer. He said there were days, especially those after treatment, that were harder than others, but that’s what made his videos so impactful. “This isn’t something where I’m splicing together a bunch of clips. It is one continuous video because I want it to be authentic and show the real struggle of cancer treatment,” said Tirey. “Hopefully, others can use this to fuel their own fire because I truly believe exercise will always make you feel better, even on days when it’s hard.” The clinical trial that Nathan joined paired ibrutinib, a targeted therapy for CLL developed at the OSUCCC – James, with another drug with the goal of allowing patients to eventually stop taking the medication. “We’ve shown in previous studies that ibrutinib is very effective, but taking it indefinitely to control CLL is very expensive and can have uncomfortable side effects,” said Jennifer Woyach, MD, an oncologist at the OSUCCC – James who led the clinical trial. “It’s amazing to be able to tell my patients that we’re going to find something that works well for them, and it’s going to allow them to get back to their normal lives, whether that’s going to work, babysitting their grandchild or taking that vacation they’ve been planning.” Woyach says efforts like Nathan’s not only increase awareness but also help support new research and emerging treatment options. It’s something Nathan is extremely grateful for and is now paying it forward one push-up at a time.