HOME INVASION SURVIVOR: ‘I'VE RECLAIMED MY LIFE'

LAUREN IS LIVING LIFE TO THE FULL AFTER A BRUTAL RANDOM ATTACK NEARLY KILLED HER

- Megan Rowe

Lauren Huxley considers herself one very lucky lady. The 34-year-old works in a job she adores, has a family she treasures, and hopes to one day marry and have children of her own.

What’s more, Lauren refuses to dwell on the past or question why she almost lost her life in a random attack of extreme violence 16 years ago.

In fact, she is so positive, bubbly and content, it’s hard to believe she has endured more pain than most people do in their entire lifetime.

“I don’t remember anything about what happened to me that day,” Lauren tells New Idea exclusively. “I appreciate the simple things in life every day, like my family and friends, and just being able to walk, talk, eat and have vision. And I’ve never ever thought, ‘Why me?’ What’s the point?”

Lauren was just 18 when a stranger, later identified as Robert Black Farmer, 39, broke into her family home in Northmead, NSW, beat her to a pulp with fibro cutters, doused her in petrol and left her for dead in November 2005. Doctors gave her a five per cent chance of survival and her family were forced to say emotional goodbyes to a body so badly beaten and bloody, she was unrecognisable.