When Lacey London runs, her little brother, Kellen, is right there with her in spirit — from start to finish. Stride by stride, breath by breath, it’s an emotional journey.

“My brother was the third-grader track champ for the elementary district, so I run for him — he’s definitely my inspiration,” the Inglemoor High senior said during a break in Thursday’s track-and-field meet at Lake Washington High.

Kellen, 10, a Moorlands Elementary School student, suffered two brain hemorrhages March 29 at school and was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Lacey said that Kellen remains in the pediatric intensive-care unit (ICU) at Harborview and received an uplifting visit from Seattle Sounders FC goalkeeper Kasey Keller on Thursday.

The family’s goal is for Kellen to exit the ICU and continue treatment at Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Lacey said.

“He’s been improving each day, and he can talk now, and eat all sorts of foods,” Lacey added. “He has become aware of what’s happened and gets really emotional. He’s pulling through — his right side is immobile, but he’s using his left to pick up his right side.

“Kasey Keller came in today and talked with him and signed his Sounders’ jersey. So just all those little things really lift his spirit.”

(Kenmore resident Trent Schultz, claims manager at insurance brokerage HUB Northwest in Bothell, played soccer with Keller at the University of Portland and arranged the visit.)

According to Kellen’s care page maintained by parents Debi and Tate, “It was determined he had an AVM (Artial Venus Malformation) … blood vessel hemorrhage. Kellen’s AVM is congenital (he was born with it). Many people in the population area born with AVMs, but its rupturing only occurs in 2-4 percent of the population.”

Lacey said that her older sister, Alyssa, came home for two weeks from Stanford University to be with Kellen and her family, which also consists of Kellen’s twin sister, Ellee.

Community support has been crucial to the Londons, and the Inglemoor High track-and-field Web site features a photo of Kellen running and his story.

“It’s is very important to have people help bring meals or just being there to say they’ve been praying for him, and just that he’s in their thoughts is really helpful,” Lacey said. “Everyone’s support means a lot to us all.”

Another care-page update from Debi and Tate reads: “We need to give Kellen all the strength we can so he can have a complete recovery. Kellen is such a strong, magnificent little boy, and he is SO loved. We cannot believe this happened, it is such a fluke occurence. All we want is to have our little boy back and be able to talk with him as he gains his health and strength back.”

Lacey, who took first with her 1,600 relay and ran the 400 on Thursday, also got a boost from fellow senior trackster Lantz Rudolph, who asked her to prom over the public-address system while she stood on the 50-yard-line.

She accepted with a smile and two thumbs up while the crowd cheered.

“That definitely changed my emotions really quickly — I thought they were just talking about my brother, which is obviously a source topic,” Lacey said. “Being asked to prom is always fun and exciting …and (this way was) unexpected.”

Added Rudolph: “It’s just the first thing that came to mind and I thought it was a good idea, so I went with this method.”