In this month's episode I had the honour of interviewing both Victoria Jenkins from Unhidden and Hayley Kellard from Dotty about Braille about the Lilac Review.

Victoria is the co-chair of the Lilac Review and both Hayley and I sit on the Steering Board.

The Lilac Review is an independent, government-backed review looking at tackling the inequalities faced by disabled entrepreneurs.

Launched on the 1st February 2024, the interim report was launched in May 2024 with recommendations for Government, Financial Institutions and Business Support Organisations.

For more details check out the website www.lilacreview.com

Victoria Jenkins Victoria is a multi award winning universal designer, disability advocate, speaker and writer. She has 16 years fashion industry experience as a garment technologist for high street and high end brands. She became disabled in her mid 20's which led to her founding Unhidden, a socially responsible universally designed fashion range, centred on adaptive design for the disabled and chronic sick community. Unhidden is the first universal fashion brand to become a member of the British Fashion Council. In September 2023 she was listed in British Vogues 'The Vogue 25' as well as Vogue Business' 100 innovators list. She is listed as the 2nd most influential disabled person in the UK by the Shaw Trust on their annual Disability Power List. She was the expert designer and co host on Channel 4 show The Unique Boutique, her TedX talk is available on YouTube and she appeared on Dragons Den in February 2023. She has judged for the V&A Innovate challenge and Scope awards this year and is a co-chair for The Lilac Review which is a 2 year government backed review in to supporting disabled entrepreneurs. She sits on the shadow board of Reflect The agency, is a member of the Inclusive Entrepreneurs APPG as well as being a brand ambassador for Models of Diversity, Purple Tuesday and Parallel and a patron of Kurt Geigers' Kindness Foundation

website: https://unhiddenclothing.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/unhidden.uk

Hayley Kellard is the founder of Dotty About Braille, an online business specialising in personalised, accessible braille greetings cards, letters and labels. Hayley is visually impaired and has a condition called POTS so is very aware of the barriers disabled entrepreneurs can face.

Webite: www.dottyaboutbraille.com

The Chronic Empowerment Hub for business owners with chronic illnesses:

https://www.excelagainsttheodds.co.uk/eato-chronic-empowerment-hub