From left: Occupational therapist Jocelyn Lydon and nurse Sara Manjikian are among the 149 runners competing in this year’s Boston Marathon in support of Stepping Strong.

In celebration of the 128th Boston Marathon and the 10th anniversary of The Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation, Brigham Bulletin is highlighting the stories of three members of the Brigham’s Stepping Strong Marathon Team. Comprising 149 runners, the team will follow the historic Boston Marathon route on April 15 — all in support of the Stepping Strong Center.

Established in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, The Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation has evolved from one family’s bold response to a personal tragedy to a thriving, multi-institutional, multidisciplinary hub tackling the continuum of trauma care. From prevention to treatment and recovery, the center’s mission is to transform care that will change outcomes for trauma survivors and their loved ones.

You can advance this critical work by supporting the Stepping Strong Marathon Team. Click here to meet members of the team or make a gift.

To commemorate its 10th anniversary, the Stepping Strong Center is also partnering with the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center to host a mobile blood drive during the marathon in Kenmore Square, 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m., at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Deerfield Street. Make an appointment to donate. As a special thank you, donors will receive a stainless-steel tumbler. For questions, email blooddonor@partners.org or call 617-632-3206.

Sean Gouvin

Sean Gouvin (center) with his children at the 2013 Boston Marathon

Like so many people near the Boston Marathon finish line in 2013, Sean Gouvin didn’t fully process what he was hearing when the first bomb went off. Having worked on construction sites for much of his career, he mistook the blast for a large rock clattering into a dumpster or a power transformer exploding.

But a few moments later, there was no mistaking it: Something awful had occurred.

Gouvin and his wife, who had both participated in the race that day, finished about 15 minutes before the first explosion. Their two youngest children, then 7 and 9 years old, had cheered for their parents at the finish line. They were all a few blocks away in a family meeting area when the bombings occurred.

For the past 11 years, that memory has haunted Gouvin, who, up until that point, had run the Boston Marathon annually since 1999. In the wake of the bombings, he couldn’t imagine doing so again — until he joined the Brigham as director of Engineering in 2022.

Seeing the life-changing care and transformative research that occurs at the Brigham every day, and learning about Stepping Strong’s contributions to that work, inspired Gouvin to return to the iconic race once again.

“The Boston Marathon has been such an important part of my life, and I don’t want to remember it only in that way,” Gouvin said. “When the opportunity came up to run for Stepping Strong, it felt like I was in the right place at the right time with the right charity to change the narrative.”

His enthusiasm for this year’s race is matched only by his excitement about supporting the Brigham’s mission in a different way from his usual work, which involves leading the team of electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, locksmiths and other skilled professionals who operate and maintain the Brigham’s facilities and building systems.

“The easy part of working in health care is the mission: There is always more that you can do to support someone, and we’re all in this together,” Gouvin said. “There are so many people here doing incredible things every single day. Running the marathon is a small way and new opportunity for me to support that.”

Acknowledging that his own family was extremely fortunate to be unharmed by the 2013 bombings, Gouvin said he looks forward to reclaiming Marathon Monday as a treasured memory.

“The Boston Marathon is one of the best displays of human emotion and, really, just the best of what Boston is,” he said. “I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to rewrite a little bit of my own story — to do it one more time and not let the joy of this event be taken away.”

Sara Manjikian, BSN, RN

Sara Manjikian, BSN, RN, never imagined she would become a trauma nurse. A former daycare teacher who always loved working with children, she planned to pursue a career in pediatric nursing.

But after applying to a wide range of patient care associate (PCA) positions while in nursing school, she received just one offer: It was in the Burn, Trauma and Surgery Unit on Braunwald Tower 8.

At first, she was completely overwhelmed by what she saw. Soon, however, Manjikian fell in love with critical care nursing, as well as the unit’s strong culture of multidisciplinary care and the difference she saw she could make in the lives of patients and families.

And now, as a staff nurse on the unit, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“My friends always ask me, ‘Why are you so drawn to that patient population?’” Manjikian said. “There are a lot of emotional components that come into it. Nobody expects to wind up in the hospital, and certainly nobody truly ever expects to be there due to a traumatic injury. What I find most rewarding in that sense are the interpersonal connections you get to make with patients and families.”

One example of this is when visitors first encounter their loved one in an intensive care setting, where the patient may be sedated and connected to multiple medical devices, she said.

“The first thing they always say to me is, ‘Can I touch them? Can I talk to them?’” Manjikian said. “I tell them I like to think, at least, that your loved one can hear you, and physical touch is very important. My patients have gone from walking, talking and living in the outside world to being suddenly very sick in a hospital bed. They are likely scared and anxious, and comforting words or a gentle touch on the head can be very healing.”

As April 15 approaches, she is humbled and overjoyed to support her patients and colleagues in a new way as a member of the Stepping Strong Marathon Team.

“I feel so lucky that I get to work side by side with Stepping Strong doctors — the people who are using the funds we raise to innovate and develop new techniques to improve care for trauma patients not only here but everywhere,” Manjikian said. “Aside from feeling so connected to the center through my work, over the years I have also heard so many stories from my colleagues who worked on April 15, 2013, and who relive it every time they talk about it. That has always resonated with me, and I try to invoke the strength they had in those moments on my tougher days.”

While building her physical endurance as she trains for her first marathon, Manjikian said she has also drawn inspiration from the incredible resilience her patients and their loved ones demonstrate each day.

“During long or difficult training runs, I always try to reflect on my patients and think, ‘You are doing this for them. The hardest thing they’re going to do today is fight to stay alive. You can run for a few hours,’” she said. “I’m grateful to be able to physically move my body in the way that I know many people can’t.”

Jocelyn Lydon, OT, OTR

For Jocelyn Lydon, OT, OTR, not much can compare to witnessing patients get ready for discharge from the Burn, Trauma and Surgery Unit on Braunwald Tower 8.

“It’s really rewarding when you see these patients go from being intubated in the ICU to walking out of the hospital,” she said. “Seeing the progress they make is pretty amazing.”

As a senior inpatient occupational therapist (OT), Lydon supports multiple clinical units throughout the hospital. But she has long felt a special connection to caring for patients who are recovering from traumatic injuries and burns.

“If you’re caring for someone who has a burn injury on their hand, OT is so important from day one because our hands give us so much function and ability to do daily activities,” Lydon said. “Even if that person is intubated, we’re going in and assessing positioning, doing passive range-of-motion exercises and giving splints so that when they’re awake and able to participate, they can begin to increase their independence with self-care activities.”

The inherently multidisciplinary and interprofessional nature of trauma care at the Brigham has also been an immensely rewarding part of her work, she added.

“Say you have a patient who was in a car accident. You’ll have everybody from the trauma, neuro, orthopaedics, ENT, plastic surgery, psychiatry, social work, nursing, OT, physical therapy and speech-language pathology teams involved in the patient’s care,” Lydon said. “You really are collaborating with so many people, and everyone plays an integral role on that team.”

When the opportunity arose to fulfill her lifelong dream of running the Boston Marathon while supporting Stepping Strong — an organization she says aligns so closely with her own goals — Lydon said it was an easy decision to apply for the team.

“We both have the same mission,” she said. “My patients inspire me to be the best clinician I can be. I have seen firsthand the incredible resilience and determination that patients have. I have learned so much about resilience from the patients at BWH, and I am honored to be able to help patients achieve their goals after a traumatic injury.”

Although she had long hoped to one day participate in the Boston Marathon, Lydon said she didn’t seriously start to consider it until volunteering last spring with a Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital program that helps people with neurological injuries, such as a stroke, return to running.

“It made me see that running is a sport for everyone. For some people, their goal is to run one lap on the track, whereas my goal is to run 26.2 miles, and both are equally as meaningful and important,” she said. “Running sometimes seems like an individual sport, but it can bring us all together.”