A terminally ill boy in a wheelchair was forced to eat off a stool at a fast food restaurant in London after staff did not offer disabled seating.
Stage 4 cancer patient Bailey Merritt, 13, was taken to Wendy’s in Camden by his brother Carl, 29, after finishing radiotherapy at a London hospital.
Bailey also suffers from ADHD, autism, as well as being partially sighted and prone to seizures.
His family chose the restaurant as the chain is a favourite of Bailey’s and the window displayed a disabled access sign.
However the teenager was forced to sit with his wheelchair pushed up to a stool due to a lack of available disabled access seating.
His family said the experience ruined Bailey’s view of Wendy’s and made him uncomfortable about eating there ever again.
Carl has called for more establishments to be aware of accessibility issues.
He said: ‘He has stage 4 terminal cancer, so at this moment in time we are just trying to make memories with him.
‘He had just come out of the hospital and when he is hungry he needs to eat pretty quickly.
‘We went in and ordered food, when you are in a bit of a rush you don’t always realise if there aren’t any seats. We also did not think it would be an issue so we just ordered our food.
‘When we got the food, we asked where the disabled seating was and staff just told us they only had a disabled toilet and not disabled seating.’
Under the Equality Act, restaurants should make reasonable adjustments to allow disabled people to have the same access as any other customers.
Carl claimed staff at Wendy’s did not make any accommodations for his brother and just told the family that ‘no seats were available’.
A small number of more practical seats were available, but staff refused to ask other customers to move their seats to accommodate for Bailey.
In an astonishing excuse, staff told the family that the building ‘was a bank’ before it was a restaurant, which explained why they did not have disabled seating
Carl is a restaurant manager himself and was appalled by the lack of sympathy which he said he received from staff members.
He added: ‘If you have a disabled toilet then you need to have disabled seating. If they are all full then you tell customers to move and tell them that other people need it.
‘They sent someone with terminal cancer to eat his dinner off a chair.
‘We would have left but we couldn’t because of Bailey’s situation, he needed to eat something then.
‘I am angry, not just for Bailey, there are a lot of people that have physical disabilities but also invisible ones. They have a disabled toilet and a sign on their window about accessibility so it doesn’t make sense.
‘They could have put disabled seating downstairs, it didn’t make sense to me.’
Bailey lives with his mother and father in Romford, while Carl has moved out of the family home he said he still tries to visit and spend time with his brother as much as possible.
He was diagnosed with cancer in 2024 and the family are now spending as much time as they can with Bailey to look after him.
However the experience at Wendy’s has now put Bailey off the restaurant for good.
‘He was very upset about it,’ said Carl, ‘Wendy’s was his favourite place to eat.
‘We have one where he lives in Romford and it was his favourite food.
‘But the way he put it in Camden was that he was eating food off a seat someone had just sat on. It made him feel dirty eating his food.
‘We struggle enough to find places he likes to eat and now we have to find a new place for him.’
Carl has called on other businesses to be more aware of catering for customers with disabilities.
He said: ‘I just think places like this need to be looking into not just physical, but hidden disabilities, they need to follow the Equality Act.
‘Especially with children, they are the worst ones to do it to.
‘I don’t think a lot of people realise how much of an impact it can have on people, it is disrespectful and it is discrimination.’
A Wendy’s source said the Camden restaurant did have three low-level seats on the downstairs floor of the building.
They confirmed they had been in touch with the family.
A spokesperson for Wendy’s said: ‘At Wendy’s, our customers are very important to us, and we are committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment in our restaurants. We are taking this claim seriously and will investigate thoroughly.’
