Anish Vij
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'.
"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?'."
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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.
"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.
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"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!!!"
"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?"
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Toby explained: "It was the first (and last) time that I was in this gym so the staff weren’t aware."
"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."