At most any event, there are as many stories as there are runners. When Danyel Manley, family, and friends hit the start of the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon, they’ll be carrying on a legacy of service that began with Danyel’s oldest sister, Tracey Gabriel. Tracey passed away from metastatic melanoma in November of 2024. As a mother, sister, friend, and labor and delivery nurse at Novant Health; she left a lasting impression on every life she touched.
A Calling to Care
Friends and family say Tracey’s journey to Charlotte and to nursing was guided by compassion and a calling to care for others. And like most journeys, it was far from a straight line. A divorce and the need to care for her own two kids forced her to change gears – and careers – from car sales, to nursing. As she told The Charlotte Ledger in 2021, she’d always seen herself in scrubs.
In her nearly 20 years as a nurse, Tracey’s warmth and dedication to service made her an idyllic coworker and caregiver. “She was just such a pillar of her community at the hospital,” Danyel told us. “She felt like nursing was her calling … she was just so passionate about it and was so loved in that community.”
Katrina Biel is a lifelong friend of Tracey’s. They met as kids when Katrina moved into the neighborhood up in New York and remained close for more than four decades. “There’s very little of my lifeline she’s not a part of … she just had such a genuine, good heart,” Katrina said. “Her heart was for her patients, her heart was for people—which made her an amazing person and nurse.”
Faith and Acceptance
Tracey’s final year was characterized by grace and determination to continue living fully despite her diagnosis. “She was a fighter and she was going to do everything she could to stick around,” Katrina told us. “She doubled-down on her faith throughout her illness, but if this was her calling … she was going to accept it.”
Danyel recalls, “She immediately wanted to just live to the fullest extent that she could.” And even though Tracey wasn’t a runner, that meant signing-up her entire family for a 5K run hosted by one of the local churches. “She was so thrilled that she actually did it, but she finished it!” That spirit is why the family chose the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon weekend to remember her together, convening as a group called “Tracey’s Tribe.”
The team will include friends, family and some of Tracey’s former colleagues. Danyel will be running the marathon, while her husband, daughter, and some others in the Tribe will run or walk the Chick-fil-A 5K. Except for Katrina. She made it abundantly clear that she wouldn’t be running, but would be at the finish line to celebrate everyone’s accomplishments. “I love her with everything in me,” she joked. “but no, I am not running!”
Extending Tracey’s Legacy
Barely a year since Tracey’s passing, her family and friends want to make sure the celebration and her legacy extend beyond race day. They’ve established a new nursing scholarship at Central Piedmont Community College in Tracey’s name to help future caregivers follow in her footsteps.
“Her heart was always for her patients,” Katrina added. “There can’t be anything more suiting than a legacy that helps future nurses carry on her work.”
Though Tracey’s passing is keenly felt, her family and friends hope others will be inspired by her story and, as her sister put it, “ to keep her spirit alive through gathering and remembering her and how much she meant to so many people.” And when Tracey’s Tribe lines up next weekend at the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon start, and as new nursing students receive a helping hand in Tracey’s name; her spirit of community, compassion and kindness will continue.
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