An 11-year-old girl from Chippenham, Wiltshire, Lauren Booth, no stranger to the pages of road.cc, has overcome disability resulting from infant meningitis to become an award-winning cyclist, paid a visit to Number 10 Downing Street earlier this month to help Prime Minister David Cameron turn on the lights on the Christmas tree outside Britain’s most famous front door.
Doctors feared that Lauren Booth would be left unable to talk or walk and would have no quality of life after she was stricken with meningitis just six weeks after she was born, reports the Wiltshire Gazzette and Herald.
As a result of that illness, Lauren lost her hearing in one ear and the parts of her brain associated with memory and speech were also damaged. She also suffers from cerebral palsy, which affects her left arm and leg.
She has overcome those setback however to race for Chippenham Wheelers, and also rides at the Newport Velodrome, where she has been training with the Disability Sports Wales squad since February this year - Dave and Tony ran in to her and her mum at Newport Velodrome at last month's Geraint Thomas track day, where she impressed not only with her riding but also some pretty nifty track-standing skills.
Last month, the remarkable youngster also won the 500m sprint at the Welsh Youth Paracycling Track Championships, and also took second place in the Class C3 3,000m individual pursuit.
In September, she won the Sports Personality of the Year - Athlete with a Disability category at the Wiltshire and Swindon Sports Awards after being nominated by the Meningitis Trust. She had raised £3,000 for the charity in July.
Speaking after their visit to Downing Street, Lauren’s mother, Lisajayne, said: “After Lauren cycled from Chippenham to Stroud to raise money for the Meningitis Trust, I decided to write to Blue Peter to let them know.
“I’d heard nothing of it, but then they got back to me to let me know they were going to give her a gold Blue Peter badge, which are extremely rare.
“They told me there was a chance she could go to 10 Downing Street if she wanted to, so I said, ‘You bet she’d like to’.”
Along with two other children selected by Blue Peter, before switching the Christmas tree lights on, Lauren spent two and a half hours with Mr Cameron, who in 2009 lost his six-year-old son Ivan, who himself suffered from cerebral palsy.
“He was just fantastic to her, so lovely and kind,” said Mrs Booth. “He took real time to have a chat to everyone and make them feel comfortable.”
Referring to the Gold Blue Peter badge her daughter was presented with, Mrs Booth said, “David Beckham has one, and I suddenly wondered if Chris Hoy had one too. It turns out that he does, so Lauren has something that her hero has too now.”
She added the visit to No. Ten Downing Street had been “amazing”. It was featured last week on Blue Peter.
“We were given a tour of it all,” she continued. “We were shown into the Cabinet offfice, where they all have designated chairs.
“Lauren was sat in the Prime Minister’s chair when he came in, and he said to her, ‘Lauren, you’re sitting in my chair’.
“She was going to get up, but he said, ‘Don’t worry, you stay there’, and he pulled up the chair next to her and had a chat with her.”
The video below shows a time-lapse of the tree being put in place and dressed, followed by the lights being switched on, to the evident delight of Lauren and the other children.
Help us to fund our site
We’ve noticed you’re using an ad blocker. If you like road.cc, but you don’t like ads, please consider subscribing to the site to support us directly. As a subscriber you can read road.cc ad-free, from as little as £1.99.
If you don’t want to subscribe, please turn your ad blocker off. The revenue from adverts helps to fund our site.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
I also live in the area and am not against changes, least of all along Beaufort Road. My objection is to suggestions that the views of people who...
Well, my aluminium mudguards are looking a little beat up. Might as well make my wallet match them.
Disk brakes are more powerful and allow to brake later, so take more risks, eg more compact groups at high speed. I had my 1st ever skid of the...
Wait the minimum tariff for death by dangerous driving is 5 years....
They don't deserve any payment, but the rebrand was done before Ashley got his stinky hands on it, so they probably did.
There's a book that can help you with that! I can't remember if it covers traffic jams on the Via Appia specifically but I'm sure there are some...
There are a lot of people out there who seem to think exactly that. It's like all those times that the traffic lights change as you are halfway...
No, you're not missing anything. I've just re-read the original article and I clearly just presumed they would hand in their licence…
That still annoys me about the BBC - iplayer only keeps some programmes available for a short time, so we have to rely on people making copies to...
The point of limited-run models like these isn't to make a profit. It's a marketing exercise to get the brand in the media via filler articles that...