Good Karma Award: LAUREN LANE

OM Yoga Awards 2024

Reading time: 2-3 minutes

This year’s Good Karma Award (chosen by awards’ host Neil Patel) went to Lauren Lane, one of the faces behind the Westway Yoga Kilektiv Dana (WYKD). It provides a free, safe space for London’s North Kensington community to practice yoga and meditation.

She said she was shocked to win the award as she didn’t even know she had been nominated. “Initially, I was quite embarrassed. I wasn’t sure how I’d been singled out when there are so many great people doing great things relating to Karma yoga. But I guess people saw what we were trying to do with WYKD and the work that goes into it.”

In the coming year, there are some big plans to grow the WYKD project further. “We hope to move to full charity status in 2025, which should help on the funding side. We also hope to foster some new connections to help generate more regular income, working with businesses that can provide sponsorship and expanding our donor outreach.”

If all goes to plan, the hope is to be running a fully-fledged ‘regular’ studio schedule with several classes available a day, up from what is mostly one class a day at present.

“WYKD is powered by love but we live in London, so it all comes at a cost unfortunately. However, every single struggle has been worth it! It’s a privilege to be a founder of this project. We have seen the most incredible transformations in people. I am in awe of the students on a regular basis, their willingness, inquisitiveness, community spirit and genuine kindness — it’s incredible the transformative power yoga can have of people.”

Visit: laurenlane.co.uk & WYKD.uk
Connect on IG: @wykd_ldn

Photos: Andrew Prod Photography - @andrewprodphotograpy