When Lauren Ault “started to see clouds,” along with the vomiting and daily migraines, her mom, Ellen, begged the eye doctor to take a look at her daughter.
After the doctor saw her, Ault was rushed to Shands at UF for emergency surgery. The doctor had found a brain-stem tumor that had grown undetected for eight years.
Now, almost three years after her first surgery, it takes Ault, 23, two minutes to walk across her ten-foot-wide living room with a walker and an hour to get dressed without assistance.
She sees a speech therapist and a physical therapist three times a week and has had four brain surgeries and four stomach surgeries in the past two years.
On Sept. 29, Ault’s friend and former occupational therapist, Megan Molyneux, is hosting a 5K run at Haile Plantation Village Center, and proceeds will go to Ault’s family to help pay for some of her medical bills and construction of proper wheelchair access to her house.
The run will begin at 7 p.m. and feature appearances from Gators coaches and surprise guests, a live band, food, beer and wine.
Participants can register at Laurensangels.com, named for the angels Ault paints each week in therapy.
Racers who register before Sept. 21 will receive a free dinner and a Lauren’s Angels T-shirt. Registration is open until the day of the run.
Ault, who remains in good spirits and is hopeful she will one day be “normal” again, will take the first steps of the race.
“She’s been through more than most of us will go through in a lifetime,” Molyneux said.
Before the doctor found the tumor, Ault dreamed of becoming a model or actress and was studying theater at Santa Fe College.
Since that first surgery, her plans have changed, but her aspirations aren’t very different from those of other 23-year-olds.
She just hopes to be able to finish school and one day work with people who may need her help.
“Something to where I can be a therapist,” Ault said. “I’ll know what they’ve been through.”
