A Slough woman has been named national disability charity’s ‘Person of the Year’ 2023.

Paige Barnes, 22, who is deafblind, has won the Sense Award for fundraising and awareness-raising efforts, including candidly sharing her experiences of dating with a disability.  

It has been a fantastic year for Paige who has found love and her first full-time job, with the year rounding off with the award. 

Paige said:  “It’s such an amazing feeling to have won the Person of the Year 2023 Award.

"This year has definitely changed my life in a good way – if you had told me two years ago that I would be where I am today, I wouldn’t have believed you.

"I couldn’t be any more grateful for my family, my friends, my boyfriend and the support from Sense.” 

The Sense Awards, now in its 20th year, is the charity’s annual celebration of people with complex disabilities and those in their lives that support them.

There are 13 categories in total including the ‘Person of the Year’ Award.

Paige, 22, lives with Usher Syndrome, a rare condition that causes deafblindness.

She has been deaf since childhood and attended a specialist school for deaf children and can communicate in both English and British Sign Language (BSL).   

Losing her sight at the age of 17 was a huge shock and very scary for Paige.

The rollercoaster began after a routine trip to Specsavers; at the time Paige didn’t realise her vision was any different to anyone else’s and was shocked when she was told she was deafblind.

Now, she has no peripheral vision and minimal vision at nighttime, and it’s likely her vision will deteriorate further over time.  

Despite the devastating diagnosis, Paige, originally from Chessington, was determined to keep seeing friends and going to college, where she trained as a hairdresser.

Five years on from her diagnosis, Paige now lives with boyfriend Sam and the pair work alongside one another at Heathrow Airport, where Paige found a job as a security officer six months ago.   

 Paige says she wouldn’t change anything about her life now, and she wants to share her story to raise awareness of deafblindness and what people with sight and hearing loss can and do achieve.   

Paige has revealed she has been inspired to share her experiences by deaf Love Island star Tasha Ghouri.

While advocating, Paige has travelled to Westminster to meet with MPs during Deafblind Awareness Week, to raise awareness of her condition and to challenge misconceptions about deafblindness.   

And despite the difficulties of training to run with limited vision, Paige took the decision to run the London Marathon for Sense and raised over £1,000 for the charity.   

Richard Kramer, Chief Executive of Sense, said:  “Paige has had an amazing year and has done such a fantastic job raising awareness of Usher Syndrome and deafblindness, and challenging misconceptions about the condition.” 

Sense, the national charity that supports people with complex disabilities, recognised a total of 35 shortlisted entries at its virtual awards ceremony on November 23.

The winners were chosen by a panel of external judges and the ceremony was hosted by disabled broadcaster and advocate Samantha Renke.