I remember at Heathrow, breaking down in tears when they were questioning me about it as we didn’t know this at the time. I felt so disrespected, and that I was a nuisance. Determining whether you can travel without a personal assistant means you may need to forgo certain things and compromise. It’s usually city breaks in Europe, with my best friend (met through travelling). About JohnI was fresh out of grad school and teaching at a high school when, in 2012, I had a car accident. Plan ahead for what documents and testing may be required to enter another country and return to the United States with your service animal. We have a large community here and your talk would definitely be well attended. I just had to learn how to adapt. Do not be deterred by things that go wrong; challenges will always present themselves. I had shopping to do (by the time I completed the epic trek I would need a bottle of gin to swig on my balcony), so I decided Luigi and I could do this without accompaniment…. Thankfully, another gentleman very kindly assisted me and then retrieved all my belongings after I had been through the scanner and been frisked by security. But I didn’t want to lose my money for this trip, so I had to put my big girl pants on and fly solo. Now, it’s important for me to be able to travel by myself. I’ve had strangers in Moscow push me through a museum in a manual wheelchair; and in Cambodia people carried me up steps to a church. I moved to London when I was four but it wasn’t until my late teens that my parents even allowed me to travel on a local bus on my own. We want to hear your story. I didn’t have any prearranged transportation because I couldn’t find an accessible taxi, which even now is difficult. However, due to my deafness, I didn’t feel confident enough to do it on my own. It’s really nice to have an advocate with you who can help with little things, like moving people out of the way or running in a shop really quickly to grab water or a snack. At the same time, it’s an almost seven-year-old boy in a pram, so he looks huge. My bed was changed and made, my room was cleaned, food was cooked and provided and so on. Blasting people online is the way to go. The only downside is that their extensive menus have very few soft diet options, which I find more enjoyable. That may sound strange to some, and while there are plenty of pros and cons to traveling solo, the former definitely outweighs the latter for me. The first conundrum was how to get myself and my suitcase from the car park to the airport on my mobility scooter. He’s non-verbal but he lets me know when he’s sad or content. As someone with cerebral palsy, I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to travel in the UK and internationally. My personal manservants stayed with me while I drove Luigi across to the tiny airport building. Levels of personal … The buffet service is also good and the staff are always happy to help. Have you ever encountered a threat or been harassed while traveling alone (disabled)? In some areas it’s actually better to be a wheelchair user. We had an absolute blast during a cruise to Alaska in May 2016, and were both extremely excited about our upcoming trip to Dublin in April 2017. ME and me: making films about disability to raise awareness, Invisible disability: coping when everyone thinks you’re healthy, We're thrilled to see that Paralympian Hollie Arnold MBE is taking part in I’m a Celebrity 2020. It was the first time I’d encountered someone saying that it’s because of who you are that we don’t want you here.