Narrandera woman Laurelle Lewis is about to compete in the Miss Diamond Pageant in Queensland in October.

Laurelle has been raising funds for Ronald McDonald House in Wagga Wagga and has already raised $250 through a wood raffle and colouring competition. She is now running a raffle through ‘Tickets in a Hat’ online with a kindly donated signed footy jersey from the Sky Blues, which she will be raffling off, along with some other minor prizes.

It is not her first time competing in a quest as in the past she has competed in the Mrs Australia Quest and represented Australia overseas in a pageant in Minneapolis.

“It has been a decade since I last took to the stage, and I have developed some chronic illness issues, one of those being fibromyalgia, but I am pushing through them, as I had several failed attempts to re-enter into pageantry, and I believe that all women should have the right to express themselves and not be defined by their circumstances,” she said.

“Due to my health issues, I haven’t been able to do everything I wanted to do for this pageant, but I feel like I have already won, with just making some progress on my health and actually preparing and getting ready to go and connecting with other contestants.

“I am so excited to be able to compete again, and I believe in taking small steps to get  big results. So it’s one step at a time, and all about pacing myself with a chronic illness so I can still achieve my dreams.”

Laurelle would love to raise between $500-$1000 for Ronald McDonald House, but it all helps, no matter how much she raises.

Wagga Big W, the Oasis swimming complex, Wagga McDonalds and Narrandera Coles have all kindly donated prizes, for which she is very grateful.

Laurelle chose Ronald McDonald House as she and her children stayed there a couple of times when they needed surgery or testing done at the hospital.

“It is such an amazing resource for us to have here in Wagga and 70 per cent of the their funding actually comes from fundraising,” she said.