SANFORD, Fla. — The 9th annual Melissa's Race to Battle Brain Cancer is set to kickoff early Saturday morning in Sanford.

The 5k race was created by Melissa Vosburg’s family after she died from cancer.

According to her family, Vosburg had been experiencing severe headaches around Christmas time in 2012. Following the holiday, she went to a doctor who said she had a common form of brain cancer.

However, Vosburg's mother said that she later learned as common as it was, there was no cure for the type of cancer she had.  

Fifty days after her diagnosis, Vosburg died, but not before living out a new dream to participate in a brain cancer awareness run to help raise money for research. Vosburg's family said that after her passing, the community stopped hosting the race which sparked their desire to host their own in Melissa's honor.

Since 2015 the family has been having Melissa's Race to Battle Brain Cancer, where the proceeds continue to go towards brain cancer research, and the family is hoping that some day that research will lead to a cure.

As a part of the race, in correlation with May being brain cancer awareness month, an ambassador is chosen for the race, and this year's pick was Lawrence Siudmak.

As a former cross-country runner, when it comes to a race, Siudmak said he knows the importance of training. He said stretching used to be one of the most important parts of his preparation before a race. However, these days, and for Melissa's race specifically, Siudmak will be walking the 5k race, as he recovers from a brain cancer diagnosis of his own.

“I prefer to run on trails in Florida, we have many natural trails," said Siudmak. "It’s much better on your body and it doesn’t wear out your knees as much as pavement or sidewalk.”

Two years ago, Siudmak began experiencing unexplained headaches, but didn't immediately do anything about them. One day, while walking down the stairs in his family’s home, Siudmak said he suddenly lost motor control and fell down the steps.

He was uninjured, but that was just the beginning of his symptoms.

After his fall, Siudmak had the first of many grand mal seizers — his wife rushed him to the emergency room because he'd never had a seizure before.

“I remember my wife holding me in her arms, preventing me from falling and hitting my head on furniture, or what have you, and I remember her taking me to the ER," Siudmak said. "But other than that, it’s basically blank in terms of my memory."

While headed to the ER, Siudmak continued to slip in and out of consciousness, as the seizures continued. Eventually he had to be intubated.

"All of this kind of fell on my wife and my parents to handle the presurgery period," Siudmak said as he described the mass doctors found in his brain. "It’s backwards on MRI, but this is my right frontal lobe and this is 8.3 centimeters in diameter."

He said the tumor was the size of an orange, and had been growing on his brain for some time. 

Surgery was successful, though, and when he woke up, Siudmak said he still cognitively felt like himself. Doctors had removed almost all of the mass, with a tiny portion of the braining lighting up in scans post surgery. They said because the remainder of the mass showing up on his scans was not growing over time, it could be  scar tissue instead.

Then, for one of his follow-up scans in 2023, nothing lit up on the scans. Siudmak said he considers himself blessed, and said his doctors say he's as close to remission as one could be with his form of cancer.

Siudmak said he's looking forward to sharing his story at this year's Melissa's Race to help bring more awareness, and hopefully, donations to continue research for brain cancer.