An “inspirational” business owner has described how she struggled with childhood loss and neurodiversity before winning an international award.
Up against 450 other women worldwide, Lauren Halket, (38), who grew up in Alsager and now owns Key Global Recruitment, took home the trophy for Inspirational Woman of the Year at the annual Women in Business Club awards.
Standing on stage at Church House Westminster in London at the ceremony, she said she felt “proud” to accept the award, which she dedicated to her mum Jane, who died when Miss Halket was just 16.
She said: “My mum was a massive inspiration. She worked in prisons as a hairdressing trainer and got prisoners through their NVQ levels two and three.
“She was well-known around Cheshire and inspired and touched the lives of many people.”
She explained that it was while she was completing her GCSEs at Alsager School that her mum died from melanoma skin cancer.
She said: “As a girl at that age, the one person you need is your mum. It was the toughest thing I’ve ever experienced, and I came out of school with no qualifications – it really affected my results.
“I could have easily sunk quickly at that point, but I managed to channel that energy into an athlete’s mindset, and I just kept running.”
Miss Halket started working at IT recruitment business OCC Computing in Nantwich and eventually opened her own firm at the age of 27.
“That was where I made all of my mistakes,” she said.
“Then I rebranded and I’ve had my current business since 2019.”
Alongside running her recruitment company, Miss Halket explained that she hosted a podcast, “Key Tech Talks”, where she interviewed industry-related guests and that she had partnered with a diversity and inclusion training business.
She said: “I was diagnosed with autism this year, and ADHD two years ago. I want people to be able to find the right employment opportunities for them, and neurodiversity is such an untapped talent market.
“Because of the troubles I had, people didn’t understand it and couldn’t be bothered with me. After all my bad experiences, I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that.
“Now I offer diversity and inclusion training as part of my service, to help businesses realise that people have different brains and think differently, and that’s often what organisations need to thrive.”
She explained that starting a training routine at Trained by Lucas gym on Zann Drive in Sandbach two years ago had helped her to stay strong mentally as well as physically while getting to grips with her diagnoses.
“There’s often a lot of conversation around mental health and well-being, and for me the gym became an anchor offering routine, resilience and a real sense of community,” she said.
“Lucas himself is a huge inspiration, and the environment genuinely feels like a supportive family, which made a real difference during some key moments on my journey.”
Miss Halket said that a recruitment associate with whom she worked regularly had nominated her for the awards in six categories after hearing her story.
The awards receive more than 15,000 entries across all categories every year, from 78 different countries.
While at the ceremony on 3rd December, she felt she could hear words of encouragement from her mum in her head.
She said: “I didn’t have a clue I was going to win; I was up against 32 other women in the room who’d been shortlisted for the same award as me, from 450 entries.
“They told me this award was a really hard one to get; it is really competitive. When they said my name I couldn’t believe it, it’s only just starting to sink in now.
“As I was stood on the stage, I didn’t feel nervous, I was just thinking ‘this is for my mum’.”
(Photo: Lauren Halket).
