Louise Hunt Skelley is looking forward to an eventful 2024!

We’re at the end of January and the month has just flown by! We’ve been talking to small businesses and finding out what they’re looking forward to in 2024.

Up today is Louise Hunt Skelley PLY. Louise is a former Paralympic tennis player who travelled competing and who was ranked top ten in the world at the height of her career. Today she’s a television commentator on sports, a motivational speaker and an advocate and activist around disability rights.

What big things are you looking forward to in 2024?
The thing I’m most excited for is the Paris Paralympic Games for both personal and professional reasons. Personally, this will be the last Games my husband Chris competes in, so I’m excited to see and support him giving it his all. Professionally, I’ll be joining the media team once again to help with the coverage of the Games! 

I’ve two more international tournaments confirmed which I will be directing and organising, and I am starting two new programs in local schools to help young people to develop their employability skills, who are struggling with the usual school/academic approach to learning.  

Can you share your business ethics for 2024? How do you want your brand to come across?
Being authentic and unique is super important to me! I want to stand out, but most importantly remain true to my core values and beliefs, helping to change perceptions in a positive way about what can be achieved regardless of any disability you may have. 

What are you planning to do differently, or better, in 2024?
I really want to push our inclusion training hard now. Myself and Rachel Weaven have developed some awesome training for employers which could really change the perceptions and opportunities for those with disabilities in the workplace. We’ve run two workshops now open to various professionals, but our aim is to now go directly to companies so it can become tailor made to each organisation and become the game changer they didn’t know they were missing. 

What are you doing for charity or community this year?
My plan is to run a fundraiser for Wiltshire Air Ambulance who I am an ambassador for. Watch this space :) 

This year will be a big year of sport – most notably the Olympics and Paralympics? If you enjoy these events, can you name those moments you watched/experienced which have stayed with you? Why? 
For me, nothing will ever beat two experiences I’ve been lucky to have! The first was in London 2012, the first Paralympics I qualified for and hearing 80,000 cheers for our team. It truly changed my life and if I close my eyes, I can relive every second of what that felt like. The second, although because of Covid it was through a screen, seeing my husband take gold at the last Paralympics is truly unbeatable! 

There are multiple ‘awareness’ days & weeks & months in January 2024 – could you pick just one and say why you’ll be engaging with it?
January 24th was the International Day of Education. This is important to me because I truly believe everyone has a right to an education, but the thing I love the most about my athlete mentor role is that I get to help children learn and develop their skills in an unconventional way! The results you can get from young people by just thinking outside the box, and not being afraid to try different methods, can be truly magical! 

For more information on Louise and the work that she does visit http://www.louisehunt.co.uk/