Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica And Wayne Heather.
Hi Jessica and Wayne, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Our story really began with a New Year’s Eve application that completely changed our lives.
Years ago, I (Jessica) was scrolling through Facebook when I saw a photo of a group of people from around the world who had spent the summer working at a summer camp in America. I was instantly drawn to the friendships and sense of adventure and decided to apply through Camp Leaders (a UK based company that supports aspiring camp counsellors wanting to work at summer camps across America).
After attending a job fair in Manchester, England, I was placed at Camp Greentop, a camp for people with disabilities in Maryland.
That decision changed my life in more ways than I could ever have imagined because it is where I met Wayne.
Wayne had already been going to Camp Greentop for three years straight, before I arrived, so he knew the camp and its community well.
Before I travelled to America, we started talking through emails, messages and phone calls. When we finally met at camp, we became great friends, and as the summer went on, that friendship turned into love. We have now been together for 15 years.
Our relationship has always been built around a shared love of travel, adventure and supporting others. Over the years, we have been fortunate enough to explore more than 37 countries and sail on 15 cruises, making lifelong friends around the world along the way.
Our connection with the disability community has also continued long after that first summer.
We still return to Maryland for Winter Camp at Camp Letts in Edgewater, Maryland, over New Year. Camp Letts is also run by the League for People with Disabilities in Baltimore, the same organisation connected with Camp Greentop. It is incredibly special to return year after year, reconnect with friends or family as we call them and continue volunteering and supporting campers and their loved ones.
For the past 15 years, we have continued to support children and adults with disabilities through volunteering at both summer and winter camps. It is something that means a huge amount to both of us and has become an important part of our lives.
Accessibility is also incredibly important to us because it is part of our everyday lives. I am left-side blind and deaf following a life-changing stroke caused by the rare autoimmune condition Behçet’s disease, and I also live with gastroparesis. I am currently being supported through an autism diagnosis, which has given me an even greater understanding of how differently people can experience the world and why accessibility and inclusion matter so much.
My late father was also a wheelchair user following a stroke, so disability and accessibility have been part of my life for many years. Wayne supports me with my disabilities every day as my carer, as well as being my husband and travel partner.
We have learned how to adapt our lives and our travels around my needs, while still making sure that disability doesn’t stop us from experiencing the world.
That personal experience is a huge part of why we focus on accessible travel through Holiday With The Heathers, my journalism and our volunteering.
We want to share honest experiences, highlight good accessibility when we find it and also be honest about where improvements are needed. For us, accessible travel isn’t simply about whether somewhere has a ramp or an accessible room. It is about having the right information, support and confidence to know that you can actually enjoy the experience once you get there.
In May 2020, during the first COVID lockdown, we launched our YouTube channel, Holiday With The Heathers. Wayne was on furlough from his previous long term employment and I was shielding due my health, and we wanted to find a positive purpose during an incredibly uncertain time. As passionate travellers, creating content about our adventures felt like the perfect place to start.
Of course, with the world unable to travel, our channel quickly evolved. We began sharing more of our everyday lives and raising awareness of rare health conditions, invisible illnesses and disability. What began as a travel channel grew into a supportive community and gave us the opportunity to connect with people who were going through similar experiences.
Wayne is very much the talent behind the camera, capturing destinations and the practical details that help our audience understand what it is really like to visit somewhere. Alongside content creation, he works full-time as an HGV driver for air logistics giant Gate Gourmet.
I taught myself video editing by learning from other creators on YouTube, and my passion for storytelling eventually led me into travel journalism. I am now an award-winning freelance travel journalist specialising in accessible travel and inclusive storytelling, while also studying for a Bachelor of Arts Open Degree with a focus on Creative Writing at the Open University.
My work has been published by publications including iPaper, Selling Travel, Bangle Magazine, Navigate Magazine, Explorers Magazine and Adventure.com, and I have also worked as a copywriter with Google Travel.
Through our content, journalism and volunteering, we continue to advocate for people living with disabilities, rare conditions and invisible illnesses. We have had the opportunity to share our experiences through television, radio, press interviews, podcasts and charitable publications, while also helping to give other people’s stories a platform.
From that New Year’s Eve application, to meeting at a summer camp in Maryland, building a life together, travelling the world and eventually becoming travel content creators and a journalist, it has certainly been an unexpected journey.
We never set out with a grand plan to become Holiday With The Heathers. We simply followed our passions, supported each other and said yes to opportunities that came our way.
Fifteen years later, we are still travelling, still volunteering, still creating content with over 1 million views on YouTube and still learning.
Most importantly, we are still doing it together. We hope that by sharing our experiences honestly, we can show that disability doesn’t have to mean giving up on adventure and that with the right support, understanding and accessibility, there is still so much of the world to discover.
And, after everything we’ve experienced so far, we genuinely feel like our story is only just beginning.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, and I think being honest about that is important because our journey has had some incredibly difficult chapters.
Over the years, we have both sadly lost our parents to serious health conditions. Losing the people who raised and supported us has been incredibly difficult, and we have had to navigate grief while continuing to work, travel, create content and support each other.
Our experiences as camp counsellors over the years have also taught us a lot about caring for others, but we never expected that we would eventually need to draw on those skills so much in our own lives.
Health has had a huge impact on both of us. We have both lost promising careers because of health issues, while the COVID pandemic and the ongoing redundancies that came with it created even more uncertainty. When we launched Holiday With The Heathers in 2020, neither of us could have predicted just how many personal challenges we would face alongside trying to build something new.
For me (Jessica), there have been particularly difficult health challenges. Since 2020, I have experienced two small strokes, with the second leading to permanent left-sided blinddeafness and neuropathy. I also live with Behçet’s disease, gastroparesis and several other ongoing health issues, and I am currently being supported through an autism diagnosis. There have been periods where simply getting through the day has had to come before creating a video, writing an article or travelling somewhere.
Wayne has had his own health journey too. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes following a medical for his current job. Going from feeling relatively healthy to suddenly needing daily medication, while also dealing with fatigue, was a big adjustment. Trying to balance that with working, travelling, filming and supporting me hasn’t always been easy.
There have been times when our content creation has had to take a back seat because one of us has been dealing with a serious or potentially life-threatening health situation. Travel hasn’t always been our priority, and there have certainly been moments when we have wondered when or even if we would be able to get back to doing what we love.
We’ve also had to learn that progress doesn’t always mean producing content every week or constantly travelling somewhere new. Sometimes progress is simply getting through a difficult period and finding the strength to start again.
The biggest thing we have learned is to adapt. We have had to become more flexible about our plans, understand each other’s limitations and learn when we need to slow down. Wayne supports me with my disabilities every day as my carer, while we both continue to support each other through whatever life throws at us.
Our experience of caring for others through our years as camp counsellors has given us a strong foundation for that. We have spent 15 years volunteering with children and adults with disabilities at summer and winter camps, and those experiences have taught us patience, empathy, resilience and the importance of simply being there for someone.
Despite all the trials and tribulations, there is one thing we have never done: quit.
We launched Holiday With The Heathers in 2020, right at the beginning of one of the most uncertain periods in modern times, and six years later we are still here. We may not have been able to create consistently, travel as often or follow the plans we originally imagined, but we have never walked away from it.
In many ways, the difficult experiences have made our content and our writing more meaningful. We don’t just talk about accessible travel from a theoretical perspective – we live it. We understand what it is like to have to rethink plans, ask for help, navigate the world with disabilities and sometimes simply hope that a destination will be as accessible as it claims to be.
Our journey certainly hasn’t been smooth, but perhaps that’s what makes it real. We’ve had grief, health scares, career changes, redundancy, uncertainty and plenty of moments when life has forced us to change direction.
But we’ve also had incredible adventures, lifelong friendships, 15 years together, countless memories from camp, more than 37 countries, 15 cruises and a community that continues to support us.
We have learned that resilience isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about acknowledging when things are difficult, adapting when you have to and continuing to move forward – even if sometimes that means taking things one small step at a time.
Six years on, we’re still creating, still travelling when we can, still volunteering, still advocating for accessible travel and, most importantly, still doing it together. And that, for us, is the real achievement.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our work has really grown and evolved alongside our personal lives. At the heart of everything we do is Holiday With The Heathers, our award-nominated travel content platform, where we share our experiences across YouTube and social media.
We create travel content with a particular focus on the USA, especially Florida, in particular Orlando and cruising.
Orlando has a very special place in our hearts. We first visited in 2017, long before we started creating content, and since then we have returned several times every year. It has become a destination we know and love, but we also never stop discovering something new.
Since 2023, we have been incredibly proud to work closely with Visit Orlando, as well as a wide range of local hotels, resorts, attractions, restaurants and local businesses. This has included properties and businesses within the Disney and Universal families, theme parks such as Universal Orlando and SeaWorld, local attractions and restaurants, Orlando Magic Basketball and independent businesses based in the wider Orlando or operating across the area.
We love that our work allows us to look beyond the obvious tourist attractions too. We enjoy discovering locally owned hotels, restaurants and independent businesses, meeting the people behind them and learning about the communities we visit. Supporting local businesses and giving something back to the destinations that welcome us is an important part of how we travel.
Cruising is another huge part of what we do. We have now sailed on 15 cruises and regularly cruise from Florida, including Port Canaveral and Fort Lauderdale, and this year we also experienced cruising from Miami for the first time.
We have worked with travel brands across Central and South Florida, and further a field across the entire East Coast of the US, Europe and UK creating content that helps our audience understand not just where to go, but how they can actually make travel work for them.
Our content creation also led me into travel journalism. I became increasingly passionate about telling stories around accessibility, diversity and inclusion, and that developed into my work as an award-winning freelance travel writer. I write about destinations from the perspective of someone who actually has to think about accessibility when travelling, rather than simply describing somewhere as ‘accessible’ because it has a lift or an accessible room.
For us, accessibility is about the whole experience. Can someone find the right information before they travel? Can they get around once they arrive? Can they afford the trip? Can they find somewhere welcoming to stay and eat? Can families travel without constantly worrying about whether their needs will be understood?
One of the things we are most proud of is being able to support families and individuals with disabilities through our content. We want to show people that travel doesn’t have to be completely out of reach financially, and that there are ways to make incredible experiences more affordable and accessible.
Cruising is something we particularly enjoy sharing because it can give families and travellers with disabilities the opportunity to experience multiple destinations without constantly having to pack, unpack and worry about changing hotels.
We also love showing people that accessible travel isn’t limited to one type of holiday. You can explore diverse destinations, stay in locally owned accommodation, eat at independent restaurants and experience a destination while still considering your accessibility needs.
We also believe strongly in learning from and giving back to the communities we visit. Travel shouldn’t just be about what we can take from a destination; it should be about the people we meet, the businesses we support and the stories we can share.
What sets us apart, we think, is that we are completely ourselves.
We don’t want our audience to see a perfectly polished version of travel where everything goes according to plan. Of course, we love sharing the incredible moments – the fun, the laughter, the amazing food, the cruises, the theme parks and those ‘pinch me’ experiences – but we aren’t afraid to show the other side either.
We have been vulnerable with our audience about losing a parent while travelling. I’ve shared what it was like to swim in the Caribbean for the first time in two years after having a dialysis catheter removed from my chest. We talk openly about disability, health, grief, fatigue and the reality of travelling when your body doesn’t always cooperate with your plans.
We think that honesty matters.
Our audience doesn’t just see the finished holiday. They see the real people behind it. Sometimes we’re having the most amazing time, and sometimes we’re exhausted, overwhelmed or having to adapt our plans. But we keep going, and we show that too.
Ultimately, we want people to watch our content and think, “If they can do it, maybe I can too.”
Whether that’s a family wondering if they can take their first cruise with a disabled child, someone who has never considered travelling because they are worried about accessibility, or simply someone looking for an affordable way to experience somewhere new, we want to give them practical information, confidence and inspiration.
We are proud to be able to combine our love of travel with our lived experiences and use our platforms to make travel feel more accessible, inclusive and achievable. For us, Holiday With The Heathers isn’t just about showing people where we have been. It’s about showing people what might be possible for them too.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
There is so much we love about Orlando that it is genuinely difficult to choose just a few things.
For us, Orlando feels like a place where there is always something new to discover. We have been visiting since 2017, long before we started creating travel content, and even after all these years we still find ourselves getting excited about returning. We have now visited several times a year for many years, and it has become almost like a second home to us.
Obviously, we love the theme parks. We are big fans of the magic and escapism they offer, and we particularly Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World. But what we love most is that Orlando is so much more than its theme parks.
There is an incredible variety of restaurants, independent businesses, attractions, shopping, entertainment, sports and outdoor experiences.
We love being able to experience the destination beyond the traditional tourist trail, whether that is discovering a family owned restaurant, staying somewhere locally owned, watching an Orlando Magic basketball game with the locals every January, exploring a new attraction or simply finding somewhere we haven’t been before.
We really appreciate how welcoming Orlando can be. We have worked with Visit Orlando since 2023, as well as hotels, resorts, attractions, restaurants and independent businesses across the area, and we have met so many people who genuinely want visitors to have a great experience.
From an accessibility perspective, Orlando also gives us so many opportunities to explore and learn. As someone who travels with disabilities, I appreciate destinations and businesses that are willing to listen, provide information and look at accessibility as part of the overall visitor experience. We love being able to share those experiences with our audience, particularly families who may be nervous about travelling with additional needs or financial restrictions.
And then there is the weather! Coming from the UK, there is something rather wonderful about escaping to Florida and having that sunshine, even if we occasionally question our life choices when we’re standing outside in the middle of a Florida summer!
If we had to choose something we like least, it would probably be the sheer size of the destination and how car-dependent Orlando can be.
There is so much spread across the wider Orlando area that getting from one experience to another can take time, and traffic can sometimes be challenging. For visitors who don’t drive, or for people with disabilities who have additional transportation requirements, planning how to get around can add another layer to a holiday becoming expensive when relying on ride share or taxis. Even though public transportation is widely available and accessible, it can take an hour or more to reach certain parts of Orlando.
The heat can be challenging toi, particularly during the summer months. We love the Florida sunshine, but the combination of heat, humidity and long days can be difficult when you are travelling with health conditions or disabilities. We’ve learned to plan our days differently, build in rest time and listen to our bodies rather than trying to do everything.
But even those challenges are part of why we keep coming back. Orlando has taught us that you don’t have to do everything in one trip. There is no such thing as a ‘one and done’ Orlando holiday for us!
Every visit gives us another reason to return, another business to discover, another attraction to experience and another story to share with our audience.
We often joke that we don’t really visit Orlando – we keep returning to continue a very long-running relationship with it!
Pricing:
- Return flight with Air Lingus London to Orlando from £300 return (depending on time of year)
- Rosen Inn hotels in Orlando $64 dollars a night plus tax
- Eat and Play Card $20 10 days, $25 for 6 months or $39 for 12 months “
- Denny’s: Features a rotating value menu (like the classic $2-$4-$6-$8 lineup) or the Everyday Value Slam. Small individual plates or sides can start as low as $2.49, and standard breakfast combos like the Grand Slam average around $7.99 to $10.99 depending on your location. Or IHOP: Value breakfast combos generally start around $6 to $7 at participating locations, but standard multi-item breakfast sampler plates and custom entrees frequently run between $15 and $19. Regular non- value meals often push a single person’s bill to $22-$32 before tax and tip.
- Orlando Magic tickets start around $33 to $58 for regular-season upper-bowl
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.holidaywiththeheathers.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holidaywiththeheathers?igsi=MWsyMjFqcmYwMm9jYQ==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EpoxA74EH/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaheather?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@holidaywiththeheathers?si=hs9a6qLvwQgo1e55
