Wetherspoons pub bans cancer sufferer

One of Britain’s biggest pub chains has banned a cancer sufferer who is going through chemotherapy unless he promises not to drink alcohol.

The Milan Bar in West Croydon (Photo: Google Maps)

Wetherspoons bosses have told 60-year-old John Osment that he’s no longer allowed in his local pub, the Milan Bar in West Croydon, unless he pledges not to order alcohol.

Mr Osment, who has cancer of the liver and colon, says he was only made aware of the controversial decision when he went to visit the pub in early April and was not allowed in.

He says that he has been drinking at the pub for 10 years and “never caused any trouble”, but now faces the prospect of spending potentially the “little time” he has left unable to enjoy a drink with his friends.

Wetherspoons argues that his ill health has caused him to collapse twice in the pub in recent weeks, leaving staff in an “unfair position”.

Both times ambulances needed to be called, and off-duty nurses who rushed to Mr Osment’s aide after the second fall told pub managers he shouldn’t be drinking when he’s going through debilitating chemotherapy treatment.

While a Wetherspoons spokesperson said he is still welcome at the bar and can be served soft drinks, Mr Osment has said he won’t be returning.

Hitting out at the ban, he told news service SWNS: “It felt like I was being told off and yet I haven’t done anything wrong.

“After I collapsed the second time I’d gone back to the pub and been drinking in there a week before anything was mentioned.

‘I was enjoying a pint with seven pals and none of us could believe it. I don’t think having cancer should prevent you being able to have a quiet drink with your friends.

‘I’m not an alcoholic or a bad drunk and yet I feel like I’ve been treated as one.”

While he accepts that his collapsing “hasn’t been ideal” for the bar staff, Mr Osment said the issue could have been “handled better”.