A woman who was touched by the orphans she met in Thailand is fundraising to build them a new home.

Lauren Coan, from Whitehaven, spent the summer working for the company Camp Thailand. While there, she visited many orphanages around the country, spending time with the children and taking them on trips.

There was one orphanage which pulled on Lauren's heartstrings and she decided to raise money by doing a sponsored sky dive.

"One orphanage in particular that we visited had 13 amazing children, they were aged between three and 10-years-old," she said.

"This orphanage was very small and had one room for 11 girls to sleep in with no mattresses and four blankets.

"The boys slept in a little corner of a small hallway. None of the children had a mattress to sleep on or a mosquito net to cover them."

Lauren originally began her fundraiser to buy mattresses, blankets and mosquito nets. But she was later hit with some devastating news.

"A month after setting up the (fundraising) page I learned that this orphanage had got some more bad luck – they were being evicted from the home they were currently in, so they were now going to become homeless with 13 children and the couple who cares for the," she said.

Lauren raised £1,500 from the skydive which she did in Thailand and the money raised will go towards building a new home for the children.

While in Thailand, Lauren taught the children English, played with them and took them on many trips.

They went ice skating, to the cinema, KFC and they even took them to swim in their hotel pool.

"The children were so grateful for us visiting them and it was like Christmas to them when we took them somewhere so normal to us, such as the cinema," said Lauren.

"From the bottom of my heart I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone for the help and support along the way."

Lauren's Go Fund Me page is still accepting donations, visit

www.gofundme.com/beds-for-bann-boonthong-orphanage