Team Reeve Spotlight: Tricia Jackson

Last fall, Tricia Jackson hosted a pre-race feast to celebrate her nephew’s quest to conquer the Chicago Marathon.

Liam was running for Team Reeve in honor of his father, Chad Larivee, who lives with a C4 spinal cord injury (SCI). Jackson was excited to watch the race but, over steaks and pasta, Liam teased her to think bigger down the road.

Come on, Auntie, don’t you want to run a marathon?

Jackson didn’t hesitate.

“I said, ‘There's no way in heck I'm running a marathon, Liam’” she says. “’No way, no way.’”

Famous last words.

The next morning, Jackson and her sister-in-law and niece embarked on an exuberant zigzag across the city to chase and cheer Liam on. The sky was a perfect blue, the energy of the crowd infectious. She thought about her big brother and the challenges he has faced since his injury with both grit and grace. By the time they got to Reeve’s afterparty, a shocking idea had taken hold of her: I’m going to do this.

A month later, when she was officially a member of Team Reeve’s 2026 Boston Marathon squad, Jackson texted her family with the news. Chad’s response – “don’t stop, don’t quit, marathon next” – has fueled her every mile since.

“I’ve never done anything like this in my life,” Jackson says. “I'm doing it by myself, but I'm doing it for so much more.”

Thousands of people have participated in Team Reeve events since 2005. They’ve run and hand-cycled marathons. They’ve tackled triathlons, Tough Mudder competitions and epic cross-country cycling adventures. In January, a group of friends rang in the new year with a bracing polar plunge into the San Francisco Bay.

To date, these efforts have raised more than $13 million for spinal cord injury research, helping to advance gains in bladder function, blood pressure regulation and restored hand dexterity, and, recently, the first FDA-approved, non-invasive spinal cord stimulation system for people with chronic SCI.

Like Jackson, many people raise their hand to help after watching a family member do so first.

“There’s something about Team Reeve’s mission that’s contagious,” says Director Kelly Lamb. “We’ll get one family member and then another and then another. It speaks to how special this team is, and how much people want to show support for loved ones living with paralysis.”

Chad ‘Choggy’ Larivee, a former firefighter, was injured in 2014 after falling off a rooftop while helping a friend with a repair. A tightly knit community of family, friends and firefighters in Taunton, MA and beyond rose up to provide support while he recovered, keeping him company at the hospital, helping make his home accessible, and pushing him in two marathons of his own in the years to come.

Despite the challenges of living with SCI – the pressure injuries and kidney stones, the bouts of pneumonia – Chad remains the anchor for his wife and three kids with an unshakeable “glass half full” attitude toward life. And that makes Jackson want to run on his behalf all the more.

“My brother is always in the back of my head,” she says. “I have him with me because he would be doing this if he could.”

After the Chicago Marathon, Jackson took a Team Reeve bracelet home and wrapped it around a jar of seashells in her bathroom as a reminder to keep pushing every day. And she has.

This winter, the once-upon-a-time jogger who thought she’d hung up her sneakers a decade ago, embraced a steady diet of cold training runs around her home in Evanston, IL. She chased the sunshine and distracted herself with number games – one mile down, 15 to go – and the beauty of nearby Lake Michigan.

On a recent day, after finishing a seemingly impossible 17-mile run, Jackson considered the rapidly approaching April 20^th race.

“This is getting really real,” she laughs. “I have no idea how I'm doing this, but I am and now there's just no looking back.”

Jackson is bracing herself for aching feet and lots of emotions, but her family will be out in full force to cheer her on.

“I feel honored I’m able to do this,” she says, adding, “And you know, whether I'm crawling or not, I'm going to make it.”

To support Tricia Jackson in the 130^th Boston Marathon, please visit here.

To learn more about Team Reeve, please visit here.