£15,000 raised in memory of Lauren Sandell

The family and friends of Lauren Sandell have raised an incredible £15,000 for charity Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) in her memory.

Lauren from Woodford Green in Essex sadly died from group W meningococcal septicaemia (MenW) in October last year at the age of 18. She had just started university.

Since then, Lauren’s family have set up a JustGiving donations page to keep Lauren’s light shining and to raise money for MRF’s work in defeating meningitis and septicaemia. Their whole community has come together to raise funds through a number of events including a fundraising walk and a football match. Will Sandell scored two goals for his sister in the charity football match in June which raised £2,000.

As well as fundraising, Lauren’s mum Sharon Sandell has bravely shared her family’s tragic story this year to raise awareness and uptake of the MenACWY vaccine - a vaccine which can prevent this type of disease and is available free for first year university students aged up to 25 and most 14 – 20 year olds.

Rob Dawson, Head of Communications and Support at MRF said, “We would like to thank Lauren’s family and friends for their incredible fundraising efforts and we are grateful to everyone who has made a donation to honour her memory in this way. £15,000 will help us enormously in our research, awareness and support programmes to ensure that other families don’t have to go through what Lauren’s has as a result of meningitis and septicaemia. We’re equally grateful to Sharon for having the courage to share Lauren’s story and we know this has been crucial in helping raise awareness of the lifesaving MenACWY vaccine.”

There’s no stopping them now; Lauren’s brother Sam is getting ready to take part in a 10k run next year, and dad, Mark, and the family’s neighbour Michael, will both run the London Marathon 2018 to raise further funds in Lauren’s memory.   

Donate to Lauren’s JustGiving fund