A distraught customer was told she was not allowed to use the staff toilets at a supermarket, despite explaining she was seriously ill.

Carly Burns, 29, of Hatherly Road, Kew, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, was shopping in Tesco last Saturday, when she suddenly needed the toilet and had to ask staff for permission to use the facilities.

The shopper, who also suffers from short bowel syndrome, explained the urgency of her getting to a toilet because of her condition.

She said: “I was shopping when I suddenly needed to go.

“Because of my condition I knew I needed to get to a toilet within two to six minutes.

“I saw the shop staff and asked if I could use the toilet and they let me out the back to go, but when I got outside the manager stopped me on the stairs and said ‘what are you doing?’.

“He then told me to go and use Starbucks’ instead.”

Miss Burns, who was first diagnosed with Crohn’s disease – a painful inflammation of the intestines – when she was 18, added when she explained her condition to the manager at the George Street store he looked at her as if she was contagious.

She said: “It’s frustrating. Only a week ago I saw them let an old woman use the toilets.

“The problem is people presume you’re young so there must be nothing wrong with you, there’s a preconception that you’re young and can hold it.

“You can’t judge someone just because you can’t see there’s something there – there could still be something going on inside.”

Miss Burns, who used to work for a neighbouring branch of Tesco, described the whole experience as degrading and said she is unlikely to return to the store in future.

Managers at the store were unable to comment, but Tesco’s head office did release a statement yesterday.

A Tesco spokeswoman said: “Clearly this must have been a distressing incident and it could have been handled in a different way.

“We will look into the implications of this matter.”

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