A SOLICITOR is celebrating after winning a dream placement working for a charity that boosts disabled people's access to sport.

The news was broken to Sharon Barton by TV presenter Gok Wan at the offices of her employer, Vodafone.

The company is paying for her to spend two months helping Maidenhead-based charity SportsAble, formerly Windsor, Ascot, Maidenhead District Sports Association for the Disabled (WAMSAD).

The Whitegrove resident was visited at her desk at the phone company's offices in Newbury to be told the news by fashion stylist Mr Wan, presenter of How To Look Good Naked and ambassador for Vodafone's World of Difference scheme.

Miss Barton, 34, who has worked for the company for two years as counsel in its consumer legal team, said: "It was a brilliant way to be told! I'm really, really pleased to be chosen, not only for myself and the opportunity it gives me but also hopefully I can help SportsAble and make a difference to them.

"I'm really enthused about this opportunity and becoming part of something. It's putting something back and making a difference." Miss Barton will use her commercial and legal experience to help SportsAble to promote itself, secure support and grow.

She added: "One of the Olympic and Paralympic legacies is hopefully leaving a legacy of sport in the country and I think a charity like SportsAble does that on a daily basis. They are promoting sport for people with disabilities so it's making it open and accessible for people to be involved in sport no matter what their attainment levels." Miss Barton developed a love of sport studying at what is now Garth Hill College and playing football and hockey. She supports Manchester United and has also travelled to Germany and South Africa to watch the World Cup.

She was one of 500 people - including 13 Vodafone employees and the rest from the general public - to be chosen for the World of Difference programme, which is in its third year.

The company will pay her salary during her placement, which starts in March, and in addition the Vodafone Foundation will donate �2,500 to SportsAble.

SportsAble was founded in 1975 and has 600 members who take part in sports including archery, boccia and swimming from grassroots to Paralympic level.

Kerl Haslam, operations manager for SportsAble, said Miss Barton would be able to help with the legal aspects of the charity's name change. He said: "It's fantastic - a great opportunity for us. We'd never be able to afford to engage somebody of Sharon's calibre at the price a lawyer would cost." For more on SportsAble, see www.

wamdsad.co.uk. See also http://worldofdifference.vodafone.co.uk