Young champion for disabled wins Lord Mayor of Leicester's citizen prize

This article is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Young champion for disabled wins Lord Mayor of Leicester's citizen prize 

A young champion for disabled people has been named the Lord Mayor of Leicester's Honoured Citizen of the Year.

Paige Murray, 16, who has cerebral palsy, is proud to speak out for the rights of people who use wheelchairs.

She is also an accomplished athlete.

Paige, of Braunstone, was one of 11 people invited to tea with the Lord Mayor Roger Blackmore during his year in office.

She was named the year's top honoured citizen and presented with a rose bowl.She said: "I'm a bit shocked about it really. But I'm very, very proud.

"I just go around making my voice heard and I keep myself busy."

Paige is on the Big Mouth Forum for disabled children, attending conferences and giving presentations on the work being done to address disability access issues.

She has also been involved in other projects, including the Streetvibe Youth Inclusion Project and Braunstone's youth panel.

She plays basketball, table tennis and various other sports and has represented Leicester at both the Stoke Mandeville Youth Disability Games and the Rotary Disabled Games, winning a total of 10 medals.

She said: "In the Big Mouth Forum, I've helped get new minibuses for disabled children and we deal a lot with how people see us.

"I speak out about what I believe in, my mum's taught me to do that.

"I have a lot to do with improving society for young disabled people, it's my goal in life. I want to be heavily involved in making a difference."

Paige's mum, Debra, said: "I'm the proudest parent on the planet.

"She never fails to amaze me and it is great to know that other people are seeing how fantastic she is."

This year's 11 honoured citizens were nominated by councillors and members of the public.

A panel of judges chose the top three.

Coun Blackmore said: "They are all people who have done something very worthy and we've had a very interesting variety of citizens. It's been a pleasure to meet them all. The judging panel had a very difficult job.

"The number of causes Paige champions are phenomenal and it's a particularly impressive achievement for someone her age."

In second place was Audrey Wilford, 74, from North Evington, who runs the Leicester Competitive Festival of Music and Dramatic Art.

She said: "I'm very pleased. This is a complete surprise.

"It was very nice to come and meet the Lord Mayor and I didn't realise this was a competition as well."

In third place was New Parks couple Serina Leeanne and Stuart Phillips, who run New Parks Community Boxing Gym.

Serina, 33, said: "It's a massive achievement. Our gym just engages with the children that hang around on the streets and it's helped bring crime down."

Other honoured citizens throughout the year included Ajmer Singh Basra, who organises fund-raising events at the city's Holy Bones Sikh temple, Diane Cank, of Northfields and Morton Tenants' and Residents' Association, who received £20,000 on Channel 4 TV show Secret Millionaire, and William Swinford, a 77-year-old volunteer from Evington.