Pull-ups saved his life — now this cancer survivor is inspiring thousands after more than 10 surgeries

Pull-up champion Kim Dong-ho, right, poses with his mother. Courtesy of Asan Medical Center

The cancer kept coming back. Again and again. At one point, Kim Dong-ho thought that if treatment would never end, maybe his life should. He climbed to the rooftop of his apartment, ready to give up.

Then he remembered what his high school gym teacher had once told him: “Let’s try to overcome cancer through exercise.”

Kim, now 23, installed a pull-up bar in his room and began training one to two hours a day. At the time, he was worn down physically and emotionally from repeated surgeries to remove tumors in his face. But focusing on something — anything — helped shift his mind. “Just being immersed in something was enough to lift my mood,” he said. The pull-up bar became both his workout and his therapy.

As his physical strength grew, so did his confidence. He no longer felt small and withdrawn from the world.

In July 2020, just one day before another surgery, Kim learned of an online pull-up competition. He filmed himself doing the exercise and entered. Then he went under the knife once more. After the surgery, a phone call came: He had won first place, beating dozens of healthy young participants.

“I think the pain of treatment actually made me stronger,” he said.

Diagnosed at age 7

Kim’s struggle with illness began when he was just 7 years old. His mouth began to swell, and a series of pediatricians and dentists couldn’t identify the cause. Eventually, a CT scan led to a diagnosis: head and neck liposarcoma, a rare cancer that begins in fat cells.

He had tumors removed from his mouth and neck, but they kept returning. What he hoped would be a one-time surgery turned into multiple operations, each time met with recurrence. At one point, doctors at his local hospital said there was nothing more they could do.

In January 2014, Kim’s family turned to Asan Medical Center in Seoul. By then, his face had been severely affected by repeated surgeries, and the emotional toll was even greater.

A multidisciplinary team — including pediatric oncologist Koh Kyung-nam, ENT specialists, plastic surgeons and radiation oncologists — rallied to help him. But the tumors were relentless. At one stage, they grew so large that they displaced bones in his face, damaging a nerve and causing partial facial paralysis.

Fortunately, his condition has since stabilized. The tumors no longer grow as aggressively, and he no longer needs chemotherapy or medication. Now, he undergoes only one tumor removal surgery a year.

“Dong-ho was small and withdrawn when he first came to our clinic,” said Koh. “But each time he walked in, I was amazed at how he was growing into a strong young man. The fact that he not only survived but became a pull-up champion is truly admirable.”

Sharing his strength

Today, Kim can complete more than 70 pull-ups in a minute. He hopes to use his strength to inspire others facing illness, trauma or despair.

“I want to be someone who gives others hope, just like the doctors who once told me they’d do everything they could to help me,” he said.

The pull-up champion now hangs from the bar not just to train himself, but to lift others up.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.