Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson 'stopped from boarding train after passenger said there was no room'

Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has said she was stopped from boarding a train after a passenger told staff there was no space on board.

The athlete, a wheelchair user with 11 gold medals, explained in a series of tweets how the customer told staff “there’s no room for her” on Saturday.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, 48, added that the passenger “wouldn’t move”, and that this put the member of train staff in an “awkward position”.

She wrote: “Merry Christmas to the person on the train who just stopped me getting on. Told member of staff ‘there’s no room for her’. Everyone else waiting on the platform got on.”

“I think staff member didn’t quite know what to do."

Outraged fans reacted with shock on Twitter, with many speaking out to support the athlete, with others questioning why train staff did not intervene.

Responding to her tweets, one fan wrote on the social media site: “You are kidding? And the train staff just allowed that?” And another said: “I hope she gets a sour Satsuma and a bible for xmas.”

It comes after Paralympian Anne Wafula Strike, a wheelchair racer from Harlow, won a financial settlement after she was forced to wet herself on a train ride because the disabled toilet was not working.

The 42-year-old said she wet herself and then covered her face with her hooded jumper to avoid being recognised during the “humiliating” incident.

In 2010, Baroness Grey-Thompson, who is one of Britain's most successful disabled athletes, was named a Life Peer.

The Cardiff-born athlete has become the patron of numerous charities, including Sportsaid Foundation and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme, since retiring in 2007.

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