Shortlist for 20th annual disability charity awards revealed

NATIONAL disability charity Sense has announced the shortlist for this year’s Sense Awards – the charity’s annual celebration of people with complex disabilities and those in their lives who support them.

The Sense Awards has been running for 20 years and recognises the incredible achievements of children and adults with complex disabilities, including deafblindness.

There are 13 categories in total, including ‘Celebrity of the Year’, which aims to recognise the disabled celebrities who have made a name for themselves and who advocate for disabled people everywhere. 

The people who have made the shortlist for the Sense Award for Celebrity of the Year this year are:

• Campaigner, presenter and Loose Women panellist Sophie Morgan, whose ‘Rights On Flights’ campaign has highlighted the challenges people with disabilities face when travelling on planes;
• BAFTA-winning actor Lenny Rush, who will be starring in Doctor Who in the fourteenth series of the TV show, and;
• TV personality and former Paralympian Ellie Simmonds, who last year graced our screens on the Strictly Come Dancing floor. 

Alongside the celebrity category, several high-profile journalists are shortlisted for the ‘Journalism of the Year’ award, including the BBC Access All team, fronted by BBC disability correspondent Nikki Fox, and Channel 4 correspondent Ruben Reuter.

Social media influencers are also being recognised at the prestigious disability awards, including Fats Timbo, Tess Daly and Jeffie Smith, for the ‘Influencer of the Year’ award.

Sense, the national charity that supports people with complex disabilities, received hundreds of nominations for its awards this year. It was down to a team of disabled celebrities, influencers and disability activists to review the nominations and decide a shortlist of three entries for each category. These judges include singer-songwriter Alice Ella, chef and TV presenter Briony May Williams, Paralympian Siobhan Fitzpatrick, children’s author Dan White, and disabled influencer Lauren Gilbert. 

Richard Kramer, Chief Executive of Sense and judge for the Sense Awards, said:

“Celebrating the achievements of children and adults with complex disabilities at our annual awards ceremony is always one of the highlights of my year. This is our 20^th year of the Sense Awards, and I’m blown away by the incredible people and organisations up for awards this year. A huge well done and good luck to everyone who made the shortlist – I can’t wait to find out who has won.”

Sense will be revealing this year’s winners at its awards ceremony on 23 November 2023, which will be hosted by disabled presenter and actress Samantha Renke. You can find out more about the Sense Awards on the charity’s website: www.sense.org.uk/sense-awards .