BOSTON (WHDH) - A mother who nearly lost her daughter in the Boston Marathon bombings is leading a mission to help other people who have gone through traumatic situations.
“You can’t always control what happens to you or to your family but you can control how you respond,” Audrey Epstein Reny told 7NEWS while discussing the Stepping Strong Center.
On April 15, 2013, her daughter, Gillian Reny, stood near the finish line of the Boston Marathon with her parents, Audrey and Steven, waiting for her sister, Danielle, to finish the race when two bombs went off.
When first responders rushed the Renys to the Brigham, Audrey and Steven were treated for minor injuries while doctors and nurses worked heroically to save Gillian’s life and both of her legs.
“Our choice was to try to turn the tragedy that we experienced into a positive and hopeful for other trauma survivors like our daughter,” Audrey said.
The family founded the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. It’s their way of giving back to the hospital and helping others living through trauma.
Founded in 2014, the center is funded by a marathon team that is running in honor of someone they love who is dealing with traumatic injury or who was inspired by the work of the center.
“Trauma in general, when you think about it, is your life can change in an instant,” said Caroline Douville, who is running with the team this year for the first time.
Five years ago, her son was born early and spent 7 weeks at the hospital’s NICU. He is now a healthy and happy 5-year-old and she wants to do what she can for the center.
“The experience was really life-changing for my family, certainly challenges for him in those first weeks,” she said. “To really have it be a tribute to what my family went through, the gratitude for what we went through and to pay it forward for such a worthy cause.”
Eleven years after their founding, the team will have more than 150 people running in the 2025 Boston Marathon.
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