Kintsugi Heroes
Bishoy Tadros · 42 min
Diagnosed with leukaemia at three, surviving brain surgery at thirteen, and broke down alone at mile 40 of a triathlon — Bishoy Tadros turned every low point into a launchpad for extraordinary purpose.
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Bishoy Tadros was born in Egypt with leukaemia at three years old. His father, a urologist and Coptic Orthodox priest, left everything he knew to take his family to California for treatment, then to Long Island, New York. Between ages three and thirteen, Bishoy battled not just cancer but isolation. He was slower than other children, unable to swim or compete, trapped by treatment he couldn't explain to himself. At thirteen, a venous angioma the size of a golf ball required brain surgery at NYU. Waking in the ICU swollen and immobile, he reached a breaking point so dark it became a turning point. In the recovery room, once he learned the mass was benign, Bishoy made a decision: whatever life throws at him, he will find a way to navigate it. He called this his life's mantra, Break Barriers.
His parents had woven three things into his childhood without knowing it: patience, perspective, and purpose. These became his tools for everything that followed. Bishoy applied them to high school, to college during the financial crisis, to a career at JP Morgan, to relationships. In his mid-twenties, he returned to fitness and eventually signed up for his first half-Ironman in June 2017. At mile 40 of the bike ride, completely dehydrated and alone in the heat, he broke down. That is when younger Bishoy spoke to older Bishoy. If the thirteen-year-old could survive brain surgery and leukaemia, the adult could finish thirty more miles by celebrating each one. He did. After that race, he ran the New York City Marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A mentor at JP Morgan challenged him to raise one hundred thousand dollars instead of three thousand. His story spread so fast that he became one of the top individual fundraisers that year and landed on national television. Seven years into banking and checked out, Bishoy Googled how to write a book, brought his laptop to lunch breaks, and wrote Break Barriers in three months. Since then, he has created the Mile 40 podcast to give others a safe space to tell their stories of hardship and rebuilding. The biggest compliment he has received is that he created a real safe space where people felt comfortable sharing their trauma for the first time.
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