By Amara Grautski

Last Marathon Monday, Katie Jerdee was on the 49th floor of the John Hancock Tower gazing down at the crowded finish line.

This year, Jerdee will run the Boston Marathon for Tedy’s Team, a charity founded by the New England Patriots’ Tedy Bruschi. Bruschi suffered a stroke in February 2005 and set up the organization that raises money for stroke research and awareness. Jerdee, a middler on the club women’s soccer team, found inspiration after suffering a stroke last year, during a routine run to practice.

“I was running with the team and I immediately veered off to my right [and] grabbed a stop sign,” Jerdee said.

Concerned teammates got the attention of a nearby security guard from Simmons College, who called an ambulance. Jerdee was rushed to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“In the first half hour I was fully conscious,” she said, but her capacities diminished shortly after. “I couldn’t remember what year it was, or my birthday or anything.”

The next day, Jerdee awoke around 9 a.m. to find she couldn’t move her right hand.

“I asked the doctor, ‘Am I ever going to use it?’ and he said he didn’t know,” she said

Although seemingly healthy, tests concluded that Jerdee had suffered a stroke that affected her cerebellum and caused temporary paralysis on the right side of her body. She spent the next few months at the Spalding Rehabilitation Center near Massachusetts General Hospital, undergoing occupational, physical and speech therapy, but Jerdee said she considers herself lucky.

“My brother had cancer and my mom had cancer, so they know how to deal with stuff really well