Hey gang, I’m Anthony. I’m the founder of The World is Accessible, and I also have a number of clients that I perform various tasks for, including some social media management, copywriting, and newsletter production – all of which almost exclusively center around the topic of accessible travel. Indeed, tabifolk is one of the brands I help out with, so if you’ve seen a tabifolk social media post any time over the past year or so, there’s a good chance I may have posted it! The same goes for the tabifolk newsletter, though some of you may have already spotted it was me who wrote it as I tend to sign off each edition with my tabifolk handle!
I am originally from Europe, but these days I live in Brazil with my wife and our daughter, who is autistic. Back in the day, I was an extremely avid traveler and used to tell anyone that’d listen that I aimed to become the first wheelchair user to visit every country in the world. I wasn’t strictly sure if the feat had already been achieved or not, but it was my tagline and I was sticking to it! But, life started to do its thing… You know, lifing, and nowadays I am much more of a vicarious traveler than I ever dared to think I would become. My country count stands firmly at 40, and I have no idea when I might get to see 41. We have different goals and ambitions now, like buying a house and supporting our daughter through school and therapy, but even still, in the back of my mind, I’m eyeing up trips to Paraguay and Argentina, to scratch that itch that never truly goes away. You don’t need me to tell you, there’s no cure for the travel bug once you’re infected.
I’m not sure what else to say about myself. I’ve had a full life so far, and I hope to continue having new adventures, even if those adventures aren’t as often in far-flung places. I’ve lived in five different countries, yet still only speak one and a half languages. I’ll close by sharing what just about every traveler I met whilst couchsurfing used to share – my top three countries visited so far… 3) Japan, 2) Vietnam, 1) New Zealand. Happy to tell you why, if you want to know, but perhaps I’ll wait to see if anyone replies to my narcissistic ramble, first! 😀
Accessible Romania by Sano Touring, Patty and Josh Grisdale3 Comments-
Anthony welcome to Tabifolk (|I know you’ve been with the company for the past year or so. I’ve been in a wheelchair for 18 years now due to a Subarachnoid haemorrhage. Before my stroke I worked as the Summit Director for the World Tourism and Travel Council. I of course travelled to many places with them and as I was at Heathrow Airport with my CEO, his Deputy and I had a migraine, my CEO said I may not fly, so it’s due to him that I’m still alive. Since my stroke I’ve been back to South Africa (where I originally come from, I emigrated to the UK 25 years ago with my husband who worked at Shell International) twice, neither was a great experience as the first time we stayed with my Mom and Dad and because I was using a hoist in those days we had to move me from my wheelchair to the toilet and the bed so that was the reason my folks had to give up their room. The problem with their house is that it’s not wheelchair accessible so my Dad had to build a temporary ramp for me 😞The next time we stayed at an airport hotel and had people come to us or we went to restaurants with them. We flew to a wonderful safari camp on the Mara Triangle in Kenya (friends of mine were as devastated as I was and they even made a wheelchair accessible tent called Patty’s tent! Of course we had to go to test out Patty’s tent. I did have to toss out half the furniture and after 3 wonderful days there I took the Management Couple around Patty’s tent and told them what was wrong with it. I flew to visit my younger sister and her family 2 years ago they now live in Australia just 2 hours away from Sydney so we had a terrific time with them.
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@Patty so glad you were with your CEO that day and are with us now ☺️
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@9patty, thank you so much for telling me all about yourself and your past. It was not only a gripping read, but also incredibly interesting. I love that you’re originally from South Africa. It’s somewhere I have always wanted to visit. Regrettably, I have never been to Africa at all, so this is something I will work to change over the coming years. Your story of how your CEO’s action effectively saved your life was also nail-biting, and I echo Josh’s sentiment when he says that he is grateful for your CEO’s presence on that day. I reminds me of something which happened to me recently. I was unwell and all set to take a transatlantic flight to see family. A couple of days before I flew, I thought, “you know what.. I have to get myself checked out here”. Lo and behold, I had pneumonia and was hospitalised for 14 days… had I flown, I would have almost certainly died because my O2 sats were at 80% when I finally made it to the hospital! 😀 Scary times! Here’s to all our long-term good health and years of amazing trips – either in person, or vicariously 😀
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