A Saugus man who has been battling cancer for almost three years won the Santa Clarita Marathon last month, and is now raising funds to run in the Boston Marathon.

Brandon Jauregui, 24, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia several years ago and is still not in remission, but his diagnosis didn’t stop him from winning this year’s marathon — or the Santa Clarita Half Marathon in 2013.

Brandon Jauregui, Photo courtesy of Go Fund Me

Jauregui placed first out of 347 total runners in the 2015 Santa Clarita Marathon held Nov. 8 with a finishing time of two hours, 35 minutes and 18 seconds, according to Race Central’s results page.

“That’s the day I wasn’t scared of my cancer anymore; the day I realized just because bad things have happened to me doesn’t mean I still can’t do good things; the day everything changed,” Jauregui said in a blog post published by SCV News. “For the first time in a very long time I felt invincible.”

He continued, “I wanted to win that race for all the people who supported me, and still do, in my running career and battle against cancer. I’ve also realized cancer can be such an unpredictable and scary aspect of life. I have no idea how long I’ll be competing for or how long I’ll be here, which is why winning this race was so important to me.”

The win qualified him for the 2017 Boston Marathon, prompting resident Amanda Meredith to create a Go Fund Me page so Jauregui can participate in the Los Angeles Marathon in February 2016 followed by the Boston Marathon in April 2017.

Related: Santa Clarita Marathon Attracts Thousands Of Runners

Funds donated through the page would be used for Jauregui’s registration fees, flight to Boston, hotel accommodations and food, according to the Go Fund Me page.

Meredith set an initial goal of raising $2,000 for Jauregui, and has raised $1,555 over the last 20 days.

“If I learned one thing during my quest for marathon gold on Nov. 8, it’s that no matter how hard something gets, fighting back is worth it,” Jauregui said. “I’m not sure it’s even possible to top my SCV marathon win, but I’ll keep training hard because I know my battle against cancer and my comeback in running is inspiring someone out there.”

To visit the Go Fund Me page for Brandon Jauregui, click here.