Birmingham cookie business sparked by anorexia recovery

Lauren Biggerstaff revisited her childhood love of baking during lockdown

Being hospitalised with anorexia was the "lightbulb moment" which helped inspire a woman to start her own baking business.

Lauren Biggerstaff, 22, said being so ill encouraged her to try things she had not done yet.

During lockdown she baked treats for neighbours which, she said, gave her the push to set up her own company.

She has a kitchen set up at her parents' home in Birmingham and is delivering cookies nationwide.

First diagnosed in 2015 at 15, Miss Biggerstaff, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, said she had been "poorly for a long time".

Lauren Biggerstaff has built a kitchen and office for her business at her parents' home in Longbridge, Birmingham

At the end of 2018 doctors stopped her going on a "dream" holiday to New York due to concerns about her health.

Things gradually got worse, she said, and in March 2019, she "felt her body giving up" and was hospitalised briefly, which spurred on her desire to recover.

"It is a lightbulb moment, I realised I was going to die at such a young age and I hadn't got the opportunity to do the things I wanted to do yet," she said.

During lockdown, she said, she revisited a childhood love of baking, leaving treats for neighbours.

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"I would knock on the door, leave it on the doorstep run away and then people would say they really enjoyed them and then that's when I got the courage to sort of take the plunge into the business," she said.

Developing Lozza's Cookie Bars, she said, has been "amazing".

Her business makes cookie cups and bars which ship nationwide

"I just didn't ever think it would be possible," Miss Biggerstaff said.

"A couple of years ago it would have been a struggle, I would have very heavily avoided being around sweet foods...just for silly ideas in my head I used to think 'Oh a smell will make me put on weight'.

"It does seem weird, people say to me 'I don't believe you're working with food having such an unhealthy relationship with it' but I love doing it."

Her recovery now, she said is going well and she is proud of how far she has come.

"I have so much to fight for," she said.

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