The Better Journeys by Avis Customer Service Award

Geraldine Marshall, owner, G@Marshall Travel

Geraldine had painstakingly organised a series of holidays at the wish of one of her regular clients who had received a terminal cancer diagnosis. When her client unfortunately passed away on holiday in Fuerteventura, despite being given the all-clear to travel, her distraught husband was left abroad alone, not knowing what to do.

This caring, supportive travel agent dropped everything to fly out personally to meet her client’s husband. She stayed for five days, paying for her own flights and accommodation, and assisted the husband with his insurance, looking after his welfare and ensuring he was comfortable and was eating, updated his family and supported the return back home of his wife.

Geraldine, despite the pressures and the stress of the situation, was calm and collected throughout, ensuring she was handling all of the affairs so that her client’s husband can grieve.

Alongside the fact that this was a situation she had never before experienced with her clients, it was happening at the exact time Geraldine herself was going through a similar experience in her own life. But at what must have been an emotional time for her personally, she was resilient and clear about her main priority – that her client and husband had a safe return to the UK so that their family could grieve properly for their loss.