Whether you personally know Lauren or not, one thing she would want you to know is that her number one goal in life is to motivate her peers by sharing her story. So, here it is: Lauren Michelle Henderson was born on September 4th, 1992 in Houston, Texas and later moved to the suburbs of Chicago. Since that day, she has had to overcome a number of health issues that no person should ever have to battle. She has issues with nearly every organ in her tiny, frail body- the most serious include her nerves, heart, lungs, and pancreas. She battles Behcet's disease, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, Lupus, Sjogren's Syndrome, Reynaud's Phenomenon, Diabetes (does anyone here pump?), and other serious autoimmune diseases. Some conditions have left her unable to eat and breathe on her own, while others have left her paralyzed from the neck down and forced to spend months in the Number 1 ranked rehabilitation hospital in the world with physical, occupational, and speech therapies for seven hours each day, seven days a week, and only able to see family and friends on the weekends. She's had more surgeries than she can count, regularly endures painful inpatient treatments that can last for days, weeks, or months, and has missed entire semesters of school due to hospital stays. And when people look at Lauren, they see the scars that cover her pale skin, rashes, thinning hair, and a skeleton-like body.
Her true beauty lies inside of her. She has the most generous spirit that you will ever find. An example of this would be her actions following her Make-A-Wish nomination. Lauren wanted to meet Taylor Swift, but with her tour, Lauren was told it could take over a year to arrange. Lauren will be 19 soon and no longer eligible for a wish, so she generously opted to give her wish to a little girl who also wanted to meet Taylor rather than applying for an emergency wish. In an interview about her decision on the wish, Lauren said, "I've truly made my peace with it. I'm happier knowing that my decision was selfless, and I'm overjoyed just thinking about someone else's dream coming true." She also plans to come home from college to run up the 103 flights of the Willis Tower to raise money for the hospital that saved her life.
Lauren has other, bigger dreams of her own, and we (her absolute closest family and friends) need your help to make them come true because her illnesses always seem to hold her back in the most cruel way. Lauren has been a talented singer since she was a very young child and started singing in church and school choirs. However, nearly every time she has a singing "gig," an illness finds a way to stop her from putting on the amazing performance we all know she is capable of. Although this has been a somewhat upsetting story, THERE IS GOOD NEWS! We were able to capture the audio (although the quality is not the greatest) of one of the songs Lauren wrote about her journey and performed at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee for the birthday of a close friend who Lauren had met in a health support group and who lost her battle shortly after. For Lauren, visiting the south again and performing her inspirational songs was a dream come true. She showed the strength and beauty of her voice as well as the strength and beauty of her soul. We all know Lauren has what it takes to go somewhere with her voice, but the people who can make her dreams come true don't live in Northern Illinois. If perseverance and hard work were really all it took, Lauren would be touring the world now.
The bottom line is the best way we can think of to help make her dreams a reality is through Ellen DeGeneres, Lauren's greatest inspiration. Ellen has recently launched a record label, and regularly states on her show that she is ALWAYS looking for new talent, so if you could all help us out, it would be worth every second of your time because we all know that this cruel world could truly use a generous, caring, pure, and REAL inspiration. Please go to this site:
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/respond/?PlugID=398
and fill in any information you think would help Lauren meet Ellen in the "Tell Us Your Story" section, and insert the link to this video. Lauren goes to a Big 10 school, so we've got a lot of people to help out already, but every person counts! PLEASE HELP!!!
Ellen, Lauren has looked up to you for as long as ANYONE can remember. Her true role models are people who have had to overcome obstacles in their lifetimes. You inspire her, but she inspires everyone around her and deserves something good to happen in her life. If you could find it in your generous heart to help Lauren's dreams come true, she wouldn't let you down. What do you say Ellen?
ps: everyone can message us for the info required on the website! We have permission!
Loading...
Thank you everyone! We (and Lauren) love you all too and thanks a million for helping us out with this! It means more than you will ever know.
LaurMichHen4 5 months ago