Hia everyone,
I'm Lauren Luke but some of you will know me as panacea81 from YouTube. I've had quite a journey so far and I thought it would be a good idea to share that journey with you all, here on my website.

The beginning
Let me take you back a bit to a small town in the North East of England called South Shields where I was born in 1981. Being from the North East means that I am a Geordie and explains my heavy accent, which often gets people confused. Geordies say a lot of words differently and I get asked a lot of questions as to why I say things like “Me” instead of “My” or “a” instead of “I”.

I was the first-born in my family although I do have three sisters, two of them twins. I remember being very happy when Helen was born because I finally had someone to play with. Helen was my closest friend growing up and we even concocted our own special language of nonsense that only we could understand.

My family weren't rich; in fact we were quite poor and I remember most things were a struggle growing up. I never really had the best toys or clothes that were in fashion; there simply wasn't enough money to go around. These things aren't necessary growing up and to be honest you don't notice them missing until you are older. Despite not having a lot I was quite happy during my younger years at junior school.