Boston Marathon Bombing Survivor Will Race on the 10th Anniversary: ‘I’m Ready to Move On’ (Exclusive)

Marc Fucarile was supporting a friend at the 2013 Boston Marathon when the second bomb went off and instantly amputated his right leg. Now, ten years later, he’ll return to the marathon to thank the city and the people who have supported him.

“You never want to be on the receiving end of generosity because that means something bad happened, but it’s emotional knowing that complete strangers care about you,” Fucarile tells PEOPLE.

Before the 2013 tragedy, Fucarile was an athlete. “I played football, track, and hockey, and it was my first time at a marathon in 35 years,” he says. “The second bomb was right next to me.”

The bomb blew out Fucarile’s ear drums, burned the majority of his lower body, and forced him to undergo years of surgeries. “I did the remainder of 2013 in and out of hospitals with smaller, different surgeries, monitoring scrap metal that lodged in my heart, that took a ride up to the artery and lodged in my right atrium area.”

Fucarile has “skin grafts all over” the lower half of his body and in his hands from “taking off my belt when I was still on fire,” he explains.

Because he sustained a traumatic brain injury, Fucarile says his tolerance for noise and stimulating environments is low, which has affected his relationship with his 15-year-old son. “Suffering and living with a TBI is really, really hard, and it’s definitely affected my relationship with my son because noise and chaos really gets my anxiety and temper high, and my patience is really shortened.”

Fucarile says Boston “saw evil at its greatest point” when two brothers planted the bombs that killed three people and injured hundreds of others. “And then, we saw kindness and generosity from so many more.”

The support from the people of Boston and strangers all over the world was overwhelming, he says. “These people went out of their way with their money that they could use for something for themselves, but they chose to donate it to me.”

Fucarile continues: “And just take the time to make a scarf, to make a blanket, to make a handmade like wool hat, knitted hat, and write a card, and just write a letter to you, and just reach out to you. And that’s always emotional, knowing that somebody took the time to do that.”

On the tenth anniversary, he’ll be riding in honor of the community that supported him through the 2013 tragedy. “I’m riding to show my thanks for all the support we received as survivors of such a horrific event,” he says. “The community outpour of support was amazing.”

When he participates in the marathon on Monday, Fucarile says he’ll be representing more than just his own resilience. “I’m riding in the hand cycle to show people, and to show my son, that you can really accomplish anything you put your mind to,” he explains.

During the marathon, he’ll wear Reebok’s adaptive offering, the NanoFlex Parafit TR, part of a special collection designed specifically for adaptive athletes.

The day of the marathon will be emotional, says Fucarile, but he’s hoping to close this chapter of his life when he returns on the tenth anniversary of the tragedy. “I’m so ready to move on past this whole, the bombing and losing my leg. I’ve been ready,” he says.

“It’s really symbolic, looking at it now and thinking back, that here’s this marathon that’ll mark the tenth year of my journey, and now I can move forward on my new chapter of what I’m trying to create and do for my life and my family.”

“It’ll be a lot of happy emotions and probably happy tears. But it’ll be great just to be done with it,” says Fucarile.

Originally from Stoneham, Mass., Fucarile spends his time mentoring kids with missing limbs and volunteering for non-profit organizations. “I’ve always been very supportive of non-profits,” he says, “but after that marathon, it just switched me over to people with mobility issues and people who suffer from tragedies.”

And after the marathon, he’ll focus on creating a platform for mobility-impaired people.

“It’s a platform, like Twitter or Instagram, where people with mobility issues can go to support one another in different ways,” he explains. “So, for example, when a 16-year-old girl becomes paralyzed in a car accident, where does her family turn, right?”

Fucarile has spent the last decade learning “a lot about what resources people need,” which inspired him to find a way to connect mobility-impaired people with the care and support they need. “I’m trying to bring that to a centralized location online for people. And it goes from amputees to spinal cord injuries, to MS, to just being older. Temporarily mobility impaired, as far as knee replacements, hip replacements, physical therapists, occupational therapists, etc.”

Generosity and acceptance are major anchors in Fucarile’s life these days. “The mental part for me was acceptance,” he says. “I think acceptance is the biggest part for anybody to recover mentally, and I was able to recover mentally because I accepted my situation. And I choose not to let it consume me. It’s not who I am.”

Instead, he’s learned to “only focus on the things” that he can control. “That’s always been my strongest thing mentally, is that I’ve always been able to focus on what I can control and not worry about what I can’t control.”

The person Fucarile has become after a decade of recovery is one who practices gratitude, he says. “If someone asks how I’m doing, I’m a person that always says, ‘I’m great, because I’m alive.’ “