Lauren has extensive experience in both corporate and non-profit organisations. She established her first company while still at school; in the next ten years she created companies in the field of branding and marketing, developing wide-ranging expertise on brand creation, management, and governance.

Working with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Nelson Mandela Foundation gave her exposure to non-profit work. A partnership with the Children’s Fund and Foundation followed, and in 2005 she was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Breast Health Foundation. Her combination of business skills and non-profit experience led to the establishment of Prime Consulting, which assists non-profits develop sustainable and effective strategies, structures and processes.

Lauren has put her experience and knowledge to work building accredited course modules to assist non-profits; recently, under her guidance, Campaigning for Cancer has partnered with Friends of Cancer Patients to create the Patient Advocacy Incubator equipping patient advocacy organisations with professional and relevant skills.

Lauren represents Campaigning for Cancer on multiple local and international coalitions, such as the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC); the South African Health Technologies and Advocacy Coalition (SAHTAC); the Lymphoma Coalition(LC) an international alliance of 75 lymphoma patient groups across 42 countries, of which she is a director; and the Global Lung Cancer Coalition (GLCC).

Lauren has been invited to play a number of roles at national and international level. As just one example, she heads the Patient User Network, a network of 118 health-related patient groups. She is a signatory to the Presidential Health Compact.

Lauren has co-authored a number of academic papers and is in demand locally and internationally as a speaker on both cancer and patient advocacy. She’s boosting her own skills currently via a Health Technology Assessment course at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide.

Lauren Pretorius is CEO of Campaigning for Cancer, a patient advocacy organisation which she co-founded in 2008 to work for the promotion and protection of the rights of patients and those affected by cancer.