By 11pm, Hansen was en route from his home in Cardiff to east London to collect the meds after a repeat customer, who competing in an adapted sailing event on Lake Geneva, realised he had left it in the UK.
"There isn't a great deal you can do or organise at quarter to 10 the night before they need it," Hansen told TTG. "We looked at courier options, but it was getting complicated because he needed it virtually straight away."
The client, who was already in Switzerland for the competition, faced having to abandon the trip entirely without the medication. "It would have meant completely cancelling everything and coming home again right after he'd arrived," Hansen said. "That's not what we wanted for him."
Hansen got to London and collected the medication at 2am before driving straight to Heathrow for a 6.40am flight to Geneva only to discover, while trying to clear security, that the flight had been cancelled.
"My boarding pass came up red," he said. "At 4am, the last thing I needed to hear was that my flight had been cancelled."
British Airways rebooked him onto a later departure, but the delay threatened to derail the entire mission. The client had already missed his scheduled morning dose and told Hansen the medication needed to arrive by 1pm at the latest. The clock was ticking.
"The intention was that I'd be there by about 9.30am," Hansen said. "But after the cancellation, there was a very real chance I'd miss him entirely."
After landing, Hansen jumped straight in a taxi for the 40-minute journey to Lake Geneva, dropped off the medication while the client was competing on the water, and then headed straight back to the airport for the return journey home.
So did he make it in time?
Hansen delivered the medication at 12.35pm – less than 30 minutes before the deadline. The round trip had taken around 19 hours. "I was tired, but at least he managed to carry on with his competition," he said.
'Nobody's just a booking reference'
For Hansen, the decision to personally deliver the medication was not about commercial gain. He admitted the company would have been paid regardless of whether the client stayed or flew home early.
"From a business point of view, it wouldn't have made any difference," he said. "But from a personal point of view, that's not how we do things – nobody's just a booking reference. Everything is personal."
World Accessible Holidays caters exclusively for travellers with accessibility needs, with a particular focus on wheelchair users and travellers with complex requirements – people Hansen believes the industry still fails to adequately cater for.
"Travel is not that accessible," he said. "It's one of the few remaining areas where, for somebody who uses a wheelchair, it's actually incredibly inaccessible."
Hansen said specialist agents are often forced to navigate issues many mainstream operators are not equipped to handle. "We're continuously finding solutions to problems," he said. "That's what we do."
While Hansen stressed emergency medication runs are not standard practice, he said the company's relationship with its customers often goes beyond a typical agent-client dynamic. "These people turn into friends," he said. “And this is exactly the kind of thing you'd do for a friend."
He added, modestly: "I don’t really know if it's a story. It just felt normal. It was simply a case of – this is what needs to happen, so let's make it happen."
TTG Fairer Travel Event – 30 June
Making travel more accessible for all will be a key theme at TTG's Fairer Travel Event on 30 June. Travel agents are invited to apply for a free ticket, while other travel professionals can purchase a ticket online.
