From Red Shoe Zone by Cheryl Wilson-Stewart
Cheryl Wilson-Stewart
INTRODUCTION: IN HER SHOES trailblazer – MIA JOHNSON
Get ready. MIA JOHNSON is going to knock you for a loop.
Occasionally we meet people who are truly extraordinary. What we learn from them prompts an entire reset in how we think and view the world. Their very presence in our life touches our hearts. We are changed. They show up when least expected, without fanfare and often in a form that offers no hint of what’s to come.
Such is the case with the woman who entered my life a year and a half ago as a website developer for this very site – MIA JOHNSON.
Her story is big, so big it’s hard to know where to start. For the purposes of this piece I’ve decided 3 years ago is a good beginning. That’s when she dragged her 63 year old, 100 pound overweight self into a personal training facility doing a face plant in the process (an unusual entry as she calls it). With characteristic aplomb she dusts herself off up and signs up for what will be a life changing journey with personal trainer David, a charming Irishman who kicks off their relationship with a friendly, “Haware-ya?”
The training was, as you can imagine, difficult. But Mia hung in. As she struggled to modify her diet, battled with elliptical machines, bosu balls and other ‘paraphernalia’, she learned she had a brain tumour (which in part explained the balance issues that put her on an angle with all flat surfaces). This is where the rubber hits the road and the power and strength of the human spirit is truly witnessed.
Whether speaking to Mia in person or reading her impossible-to-put-down, recently released book – RUNNING ON AN ANGLE you are completely disarmed with her candor, humility and humour. Mia is quite simply….amazing.
