At the age of four Lauren wanted a bit of independence and her mum contacted us.
We funded a special trike for her but little did anyone know at the time this was to fuel her passion.
By the age of 11 Lauren was cycling mad - her room covered in posters of Sir Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins.
She cycles whenever she can - despite having cerebral palsy. Road racing is her event and she has been ranked as highly as 4th in the country in her age group by British Cycling.
To celebrate her 10th anniversary of surviving meningitis Lauren, cycled 25 miles from her home in Wiltshire to our head office in Stroud, raising thousands of pounds, which went towards helping families like hers.
And since then a dream has come true for top cycling fan Lauren when she won a national competition to be voted Britain’s Biggest Cycling Fan and shared the track at the Manchester Velodrome with her hero and cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy.
Meningitis Now got behind Lauren’s bid to win the competition by encouraging its supporters to vote for her on Twitter and Facebook, after she was nominated for the Sky Ride competition by her mum, Lisa-Jayne.
Her mum, Lisa-Jayne, said: “Lauren has come such a long way since she was given her trike by Meningitis Now and it’s great that she gets a reward like this for all of her hard work. We are all so proud of her.”
