A man with a facial disfigurement says he was asked to leave a restaurant in south London because staff said he was "scaring the customers". 

Oliver Bromley has Neurofibromatosis Type 1, a genetic condition that causes non-cancerous tumours to grow on his nerves.

Speaking to the BBC, he said when he had gone to place an order at a restaurant in Camberwell, staff told him there had been complaints about him.

"It's a horrible thing to happen. I took it very personally on the day," he said.

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[–] 139 points 2 years ago (18 children)

Then don't look at him? The man was just trying to eat. Poor guy.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago

    I feel so bad for this guy. Imagine the shit he has to put up with all the time. I used to work with a lady who had a big tumor on her face. She was so sweet, but I'm sure she had to put up with all kinds of horrible shit. I honestly really liked her. I would have asked her out if I hadn't been in a relationship because we got along really well. I don't care if you have a big tumor on your face. I'll get used to it after I've seen you for more than a minute or two.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Its that simple. I dont have a hard time ignoring other tables at a restaurant unless they are obnoxiously noisy. How about ya cunts just carry on with your lives and be happy that you dont have to live with that.

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  • [+] -53 points 2 years ago (15 children)

    It isn't that simple. A worldwide measles outbreak is in the news, as is the fact UK is dealing with a surge in far-right BS. As a layman all I know about measles is it has spots as a glaring symptom and is dangerous for children.

    This dude would have made me worried about a measles exposure, but a simple query assuring the proprietors it was not contagious would have resolved my concern. This dude has my sympathy because this is not the only hassle he has been forced to endure, as if the condition wasn't enough suffering.

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    This looks nothing at all like measles, to even bother the person enough to ask such a ridiculous question is revolting.

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  • [+] -24 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Yes, yes we all know everything you wouldn't do is repugnant. Must be nice. I am not a doctor, and 99% of the population isn't either. This could also be that new pox variant gathering steam. Point is, you see something like this reminiscent of a serious and contagious illness, in an eatery, and there are reasonable concerns for the public beyond politeness.

    Like, someone walking in to a restaurant coughing like crazy with hollow eyes and pale skin wouldn't trigger any alarms? Be realistic.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    and there are reasonable concerns for the public beyond politeness.

    No, there are not.

    This is a seriously fucked annd irrational attitude to hold.

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  • [+] -17 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    This is a seriously fucked annd irrational attitude to hold.

    No, it isn't. RL life isn't Lemmy dude.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    This is real life, right now. Lemmy doesn’t exist in a different reality, everyone you are talking to here is a real person in real life.

    And it is very fucked up. It’s the sort of hateful shit one would expect from a right winger.

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  • [+] -16 points 2 years ago* (4 children)

    everyone you are talking to here is a real person in real life

    How delightfully naive.

    Nothing f'd up about at all. Very left wing to put the well being of many over those of the few or one. Seriously, maybe come down from that pedestal and actually learn a thing or 2 about what you discuss before assuming your self-righteousness.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    Your irrational hatred and fear of people who have facial disfigurements does not protect people.

    There is zero others wellbeing defended by your response because no one is at risk from this, you are only hurting another human by excluding them from society.

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  • [+] -14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    This isn't about the disfigurements. It's about having prominent symptoms of a possible contagion. Honestly getting annoyed at the prevalence of illiteracy in a primarily text medium. I have no hatred and have expressed concern for the poor man in the first comment or have you forgotten already, or skipped it in your eagerness at the opportunity to white knight a straw man?

    If someone entered the eatery you were at coughing so badly they could barely speak you wouldn't be the least bit concerned? ''just put an earplug in'! lol

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Not the person you were talking too, but I think where you're losing people is that no one else is looking at his face and thinking "measles"...there is a picture in the article and that's not what measles looks like...at all. In any way. Your continued insistence that it "might be contagious" when no reasonable person would come to that conclusion really makes it look like your trying to use an excuse to be uncomfortable with the guy for daring to be in public.

    Also stop trying to equate this with coughing. No one whose made it to adulthood thinks this guy has any sort of contagious pox, that not what they look like and it doesn't take a doctor to know that.

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  • [+] -9 points 2 years ago

    That's fine. It doesn't have to be measles. Monkeypox is also doing rounds in the news and there are plenty of other serious diseases that have bumps, blisters, spots and the like to be concerned about. Also consider that the restaurant likely did not have similarly bright lighting to reveal the details of a disease in a photograph, nor would most concerned have gotten as close as the camera did. The point is there is no reason to consider a condition not contagious until informed otherwise and people are forgetting to set aside the omniscience a news article provides. Equating this with coughing helps convey this overwhelmingly complex concept to the many many people that apparently need the simplification.

    Ya'll want to take this clearcut case of simpleminded revulsion and apply it universally to everyone involved without proof. One of the patrons could very well have simply asked 'is he contagious?' and the waiter, like many out there apparently (even, say, a journalist trying to sensationalize the article), simplified the ask to a lowest common denominator. Even if the article does show clearcut revulsion from all the patrons involved, you cannot generalize that behaviour to everyone, and even the poor victim gets this which is why he, at least, is so understanding.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    LOL this is a pretty common condition. You're projecting your ignorance without taking a moment to look up the wikipedia article on this disease.

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  • [+] -21 points 2 years ago*

    Sorry, I'm in the middle of dinner at a nice restaurant. I'm not going to try looking up every known contagion with spots or bumps as a symptom when the person could just do a public courtesy and alleviate everyone's concerns by just stating "I'm not contagious".

    Edit: better yet, it'd nicer if the world wasn't full of selfish assholes willing to spread their suffering to others intentionally so we wouldn't even be worried in the first place.

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