A blind man has revealed how he was once 'removed' from the gym after a woman thought he was knowingly staring at her and 'being creepy'.
Blind footballer Toby Addison - who was born sighted - started to lose his vision from the age of 11. In his early teens, he was was 80 percent blind and now only has 4 percent of his eyesight left.
However, Toby has since become a TikTok sensation after garnering over 250k followers by sharing stories of his life experiences as a blind person.
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But sadly, one of those experiences was certainly not a positive one, which saw him get kicked out of a gym after a woman complained that he was staring at her.
Explaining what went down in a TikTok video posted earlier this year, Toby said: "Once I was in the gym, minding my business on a machine, doing whatever exercise, and I hear someone a few metres away, say, 'ah, do you like the view?'.
"I'm thinking to myself, 'uh oh, we've got a bit of a gym freak here, I wonder what idiot is looking at this poor woman making her uncomfortable'.
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"I don't hear a response from whoever she's talking to. But then I hear again, much closer to me now, 'uh did you hear me? Why are you staring at me?'."
He added: "Now, I don't look stereotypically blind. But one thing I do do especially when I'm focusing is to stare into the distance.
"And it turns out that I was unfortunately, staring right at this woman while she was doing her exercise. I replied to the woman who's now inches from my face all up in my area.
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"I say 'I'm very sorry didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I'm actually blind. I was not staring at you. I was staring at nothing'.
"She's not having any of it. She tells me to 'shut up' calls me 'a creep', storms off against the gym worker, I plead my innocence to them, but they are not listening to me.
"I was removed from the gym that day. The gym should be a safe space where everyone feels comfortable. But I promise you, not every guy in the gym is a creep."
Commenting on the viral post, one viewer said: "How can people not accept the excuse of being blind?!! That’s so cruel they should be accommodating you!!!"
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"Oh man that so upsetting. Sorry this happened to you," another added.
While a third person wondered: "Surely though the staff are aware that you're blind? Isn’t that a safety issue?"
Toby explained: "It was the first (and last) time that I was in this gym so the staff weren’t aware."
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"Did they not see your cane?!!!!" another questioned, to which the TikToker responded: "I had it folded up at the time but walked out with it?? So they would’ve seen it."
Anish Vij