About Lauren Murrell

At 23, I had my whole future planned. Then I was told I had a 20% chance of living to see it.

Weeks away from my final law exams, I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, a brutal form of blood cancer.

My sister, Sarah, became my stem-cell donor and saved my life. I spent months in protective isolation and underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy and total body irradiation.

I turned my hospital room into a portal to the future I wished for. Posters of New York and the Caribbean covered the walls, and a nordic cross-trainer mimicked the early morning runs I used to take around my local park, even though I was squeaking out my reps tethered to an IV pole.

I was tested to my limits during those two years of intense treatment and early recovery, but I never lost my determination to finish what I'd started. I mustered all the strength I had and went back to law school to finish my degree, then built a corporate legal career in London and New York.

My days felt full of vitality and possibility again, so I followed my wanderlust to the British Virgin Islands for work.

Then Hurricane Irma tore through the island and paradise collapsed around me. I felt the full force of the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history. The BBC described the aftermath as looking like it had been hit by the blast wave of a bomb. I was eventually rescued and evacuated.

Back in the UK, it was time to start again and build from the rubble.

I left my legal career and my sister and I launched By Sarah, with the skincare she'd originally made for my cancer-ravaged skin, so sensitive and fragile after all the treatment. Our award-winning brand is now stocked with Ocado, Planet Organic and Macmillan Cancer Support.

These chapters feel more like fiction than my own life at times. I've had to piece myself back together more often than I can count. Choosing to move forward with courage, resilience and optimism every time.

Today, I write about that. Every week, Rise on Purpose goes out to 80,000+ ambitious people across social and email who are figuring out what comes next after life didn't go to plan. From career setbacks and business challenges to diagnoses and the unexpected moments that change everything.

What I've learned is that hitting rock bottom isn't the end of your story. It's the start of your comeback.

If you're ready to turn the page and create an ambitious next chapter of your own, I'd love to have you with me.