Cookham woman selected for Miss Universe Great Britain finals

A Cookham beauty queen is in the running to be this year’s Miss Universe Great Britain (MUGB).

Caitlin Grant, 22, is hoping to represent the UK at the 2023 Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador.

Berkshire-born Caitlin was raised in Australia and moved to Cookham in 2019 to care for her recently widowed grandmother.

She then spent more than three years without seeing her family during the pandemic.

Caitlin said: “I arrived in the UK as an 18-year-old on a big adventure ready to pursue my dreams and COVID made that extremely difficult, but now I have really turned a corner.”

She ‘thanked’ self-help books and surrounding herself with positive people to ‘finding direction in life’.

After the pandemic, she ‘took control of her life’ with diet and exercise to drop two stone and two dress sizes.

“Friends tell me I have become a completely different person due to my self-love journey.

“I hope to inspire many other young women,” she added.

Caitlin is a performing arts student at the University of Gloucester, as well as a grade 8 pianist, tap and jazz dancer, certified makeup artist and qualified fitness instructor.

Next month she will run a half Marathon in support of domestic abuse organisation, Refuge and said the difficulty ‘does not compare to the hardships that many women go through.’

Caitlin is one of 35 contestants competing at the MUGB final in Cardiff in July.

The three-day event includes a charity ball, an empowerment day with leadership coaches, a catwalk show with judges from the beauty and fashion industry and a firewalk to close the celebrations.

Caitlin said: “I am really excited to have been chosen as a finalist for MUGB. Miss Universe is one of the biggest pageants in the world and to think that I may be the British representative for 2023 is exciting and amazing.”

She said the support received from her family, friends and the Cookham community has been ‘wonderful’.

She added: “I think everyone is proud of how far I have come.”

As part of the competition, Caitlin is fundraising for A-Sisterhood, an organisation supporting the advancement of women worldwide, including Stop Acid Attacks in India which helps survivors of acid violence.

Paula Abbandonato, National director of MUGB said: “We have an incredible line-up of young women at MUGB once again this year.

“They are all bring something special to the table and are proud to be feminists in heels.”

Awards for the most inspiring finalist and the finalist who raises the most for charity will be presented by the national director at the finals in July.

The 2022 MUGB is Noky Simbani, a 26-year-old banking professional from Derby and the current Miss Universe is fashion designer R’Bonny Gabriel from USA.

A public vote is currently open to help give contestants a 15, 10 and 5 point head start on the leader board. Visit https://www.missuniversegb.co.uk/voting for more information.