OVERWEIGHT, lonely and depressed, 21-year-old Lauren could once barely look at herself in the mirror, but having shed the pounds and turned her life around, she is now set to represent Essex in a major beauty pageant.
The story of the ugly ducking transforming into a beautiful swan is one that resonates with Ingatestone girl Lauren Chapelhow.
When she moved from regular school into the sixth form at Anglo-European School, her world changed.
Her friends had either left or were studying other subjects, she became lonely, piled on the pounds through comfort eating, and, worse still, her epilepsy got out of control.
She said: "I started having two or three seizures a week and I started refusing to go into school.
"I just got to the point where I felt so bad about myself, I could not be bothered any more, I would wear stretch jeans, hoodies and no make-up, and there was one time that I got so upset that I threw a glass at my bedroom door and there is still a dent there today.
"And I took it all out on my parents because they were really trying to get me out of the rut."
Things came to a head for Lauren on December 1, 2008, when she had six epileptic fits in one terrible day while at school and she didn't go back again.
Within a year she had enrolled at Chelmsford College on a child care and education course, she made new friends and started to feel a bit happier, the fits stopped, but still she was unhappily overweight.
But once she had begun working as a teaching assistant at Billericay School, things began to change.
"I love to cook and I just started cooking healthy meals and exercising more, I joined a Zumba class, but that's all I did.
"Suddenly people started complimenting me and it felt absolutely great."
She has dropped from a size 14 to a 10.
And while browsing the internet one day, she spotted a link to the Miss Galaxy UK beauty pageant and having already posed for some pictures of her slim new look she was unable to resist.
"I like to show myself off now and I love getting dressed up, so I thought why not?"
To her surprise pageant officials contacted Lauren, who lives with her with her mum and twin sisters in Willow Green, and told her she'd be parading for her county at the national finals next March.
But in order to cover costs, Lauren, who headed off to Canterbury and Christ Church University to study education, must find a sponsor.
To discuss the advertising opportunities available from sponsoring Lauren, e-mail her on ld.chapelhow@hotmail.com
