Chippenham youngster Lauren Booth proved she is a force to be reckoned with after meeting Prime Minister David Cameron.

The 11-year-old, of Hayward Close, visited 10 Downing Street to turn on the Christmas lights after mum Lisajayne wrote to Blue Peter to tell them of her daughter’s amazing success in cycling.

Lauren, who is a fan of Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, cycles competitively for the Chippenham Wheelers and also races at the Newport Velodrome, recently winning two medals at the Welsh Youth Paracycling Track Championships.

What makes her successes all the more remarkable is that when Lauren was just six weeks old, she was struck down with meningitis, and doctors feared she would never walk, talk or have any quality of life.

But while the illness left her with damage to the parts of the brain that deal with memory and speech, hearing loss in one ear and cerebral palsy affecting her left arm and leg, she has excelled at cycling.

Mrs Booth, who visited Downing Street with her daughter, said: “After Lauren cycled from Chippenham to Stroud to raise money for the Meningitis Trust, I decided to write to Blue Peter to let them know.

“I’d heard nothing of it, but then they got back to me to let me know they were going to give her a gold Blue Peter badge, which are extremely rare.

“They told me there was a chance she could go to 10 Downing Street if she wanted to, so I said, ‘You bet she’d like to’.”

Lauren was one of three youngsters who spent two-and-a-half hours with the Prime Minister before helping him switch on his Christmas lights.

Mrs Booth said: “He was just fantastic to her, so lovely and kind.

“He took real time to have a chat to everyone and make them feel comfortable.”

The proud mum said she was grateful to Blue Peter for setting up the magical occasion and granting the Queen’s Crescent School pupil with one of the coveted gold badges.

“David Beckham has one, and I suddenly wondered if Chris Hoy had one too,” she said.

“It turns out that he does, so Lauren has something that her hero has too now.”

She said the experience of visiting Number Ten had been “amazing”.

“We were given a tour of it all,” said Lisajayne. “We were shown into the Cabinet offfice, where they all have designated chairs.

“Lauren was sat in the Prime Minister’s chair when he came in, and he said to her, ‘Lauren, you’re sitting in my chair’.

“She was going to get up, but he said, ‘Don’t worry, you stay there’, and he pulled up the chair next to her and had a chat with her.”

Lauren’s meeting with the Prime Minister was shown on Blue Peter on Monday.