I’ve been thinking about how much of a story we don’t see from the outside. The years behind someone standing up to speak. The decisions behind a journey that feels easy, or the missing detail that makes it harder than it needs to be. Last week took me into some very different rooms, but I kept coming back to that thought.

The little things people carry

A conversation I’d had a little earlier was still very much with me. I spent the best part of two hours with Caron McLuckie for her Life Without Limits feature, talking about her life, B.adaptive and her son Emile’s legacy. It was the anniversary week of Emile’s passing, which made being trusted with that time feel even more of a privilege. It was a beautiful, emotional and inspiring conversation, and I’m taking care with the piece we’re making together.

At the With Women business networking event at Rogerthorpe Manor, Beverley Wainwright, founder of Cleaning Genius AI stood up holding a little toy till she’d kept since childhood. She spoke about challenges, resilience, the strong women who’d shaped her and what rebuilding had looked like in her own life. She’d held onto the till for 51 years. It seemed to hold so much of what she was sharing with us, and it still rang. For a moment, I think we all remembered the little girls we’d once been when we heard it.

She was remarkable. By the end, we were all in tears. The afternoon was a wonderful reminder of strong, independent businesswomen supporting and celebrating each other. There was no judgement, just openness, and I left feeling inspired, with some genuine new connections.

The talk I hadn’t planned

Somehow, I also ended up giving a talk I hadn’t planned to give. 😂

I found myself speaking about my own chapters: the police, learning to navigate life differently, adaptive boxing, working behind the scenes in boxing media and a decade of travelling as a wheelchair user.

I talked about working too much, pushing myself too hard, and how severe pneumonia made me re-evaluate my life. Last October, I tore up the script I’d been following. Not long after, I walked away from my media manager role in boxing. This spring, I launched The Inclusive Edit. A quiet dream I’d kept to myself became real, and I shared why I’d wanted to build it.

I’m glad I didn’t arrive with a polished speech because, like many people’s, my story isn’t especially neat. Some of the turns only make sense when you look back at where they’ve brought you.

The journey around the journey

Those thoughts about what happens behind the scenes followed me to the Roads for All forum in Milton Keynes with Disabled Motoring UK. Our conversations began around my piece on Motability in 2026, and I went with questions about what disabled drivers need to know when a route changes. I came away fascinated by who influences diversion decisions, how they’re made and what information reaches the person actually making the journey.

I didn’t expect road diversions to become something I’d find quite so interesting, but apparently this is part of the job now!

Travelling by road can be the most demanding part of a trip, and it sits around the experience we’ve gone away to enjoy. It’s getting to an airport or ferry port on time. It’s a chauffeur or concierge knowing where to meet you and getting you where you need to be.

If you’re driving yourself, it’s working out where you can refuel or charge, use the loo and take a proper break. And when Plan A doesn’t go to plan, it’s knowing what your other options are, who can help and what a delay means for the crossing, check-in or plans waiting at the other end. All of that shapes how you arrive, not simply whether you arrive.

One of the practical things I learned was that Deaf BSL users can contact National Highways through an interpreter, online or through the Convo app. That gives people another way to ask questions, including about traffic updates and incidents. I shared it on Instagram because it’s the sort of information you want before you need it.

What can you rely on before you travel?

My stay at the Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes raised a different question. I had a rather strange experience with a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP) form, so I asked on Instagram what other people had been told about getting help in an emergency. The replies were quite a mix, and I’m still trying to understand what a guest can actually rely on. I’ve asked IHG about my experience and I’m waiting to hear back.

Back at home, I set out to book somewhere lovely for my London trip and somehow ended up writing a whole piece about booking accessible luxury hotel rooms directly. Occupational hazard, perhaps. I wanted to see the room, understand whether it would work for me and book it.

Royal Lancaster London genuinely impressed me. Its accessible room was there to book online, and I could even request a mobile hoist as part of the booking. I’ve never seen that on a hotel booking page before! I don’t need one myself, but I thought it was fabulous to see such an important detail offered right where a guest chooses their room.

The details that stay with me

And then there are the details that stay with you for a much lovelier reason. I found myself thinking back to my conversation with Kam Mirza of Legend Executive Chauffeurs. For Kam, the finer, personal details are at the heart of Legend. Which may explain the midnight phone call, just hours before we left for the airport for our wedding, because the blue ribbons on the car didn’t look quite right! I still laugh about it, but knowing someone cared about that tiny detail made the start of our journey feel rather special.

Legend has since supported some of our journeys as a travel partner to The Inclusive Edit, and Kam’s genuine interest in what I’m building means a lot to me. He cares about the ‘why’ behind the work as well as getting us there in style.

And in a considerably less professional piece of forward planning, I asked ChatGPT what I might look like at 70. Thorough research, obviously. 😂

Next stop: London

This week I’m heading to London for the British Parking Awards with Disabled Motoring UK. It’ll be my first time travelling with National Express, and I’m curious to see how the journey works as a wheelchair user. I’ve got two hotel stays booked, so I’ll be paying attention to everything between leaving home and getting back again. I’m hoping there’ll be some good food in there somewhere too.

If you’d like to come along, I’ll be sharing bits of the journey on my Instagram and The Inclusive Edit’s. I’d love to hear what you notice on your travels, too.

More when I’m back.

Luiz x

Letters from Luiz is a more personal corner of The Inclusive Edit: the life around the work, conversations that stay with me and the occasional thing that makes me laugh at myself. If you’d like the next letter, join the mailing list. I’d love to have you here.