People can be extraordinarily cruel. They'll judge with reckless abandon, oftentimes, over things you can't even control. This was the case for Oliver Bromley, who lives with Neurofibromatosis Type 1, causing facial disfigurement. He engages in a completely normal activity and faces unfair scrutiny over it.
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Recently, 42 year old Oliver goes to King's College Hospital in Camberwell, southeast London. There, he receives treatments for his facial condition. Afterwards, he decides to go grab lunch from a local restaurant. However, staff informs him of complaints from other customers in the establishment. They claim that he was 'scaring the customers' due to his condition. Consequently, they ask him to leave so no other concerns arise from the patrons.
Oliver doesn't completely buy that the customers alone were the reason he was asked to leave. Rather, he suspects that the staff didn't want him there over his facial condition. "There had not been enough time between the time I had been there first, and the time I went back, for anyone to have made a complaint about me so obviously the restaurant staff were not happy with the way I looked."
Oliver's Facial Disfigurement Causes Customer Complaints
Oliver doesn't put up much of a fight with the staff over the debacle. He leaves shortly afterwards as to not cause any commotion and bring too much attention to himself. However, he does take steps to correct the matter. Bromley writes to the restaurant, informing him of his facial condition and expressing his frustration over the matter. When nothing comes there, he follows up with a report to the police. They record the situation as a hate crime but no arrests or consequences seem to unfurl from it.
Ultimately, Oliver just wants more awareness and education over these kinds of facial conditions. He's more than used to plenty of stares from people trying to understand what the deal is. However, he never experienced anything so direct as a plain dismissal from the restaurant. Hopefully, with enough awareness, it can cause positive reactions and prevent such an issue from happening again.
