'I feared for my health': disabled actor tells of nightmare train journey
Samantha Renke, who starred in Maltesers ads, says accessible toilet and disabled area were blocked with luggage during two-and-a-half-hour trip
A disabled actor has told the Guardian that she was left really upset and fearful for her health after a train company failed to provide easy access to her reserved space and an accessible toilet during a two-and-a-half hour train journey.
Samantha Renke, who recently starred in high-profile adverts for Maltesers, has brittle bone disease, which means she is susceptible to injury and has to use a wheelchair.
She was travelling from Preston to London on Virgin Trains on 27 December and was unable to take her seat because the disabled area she had reserved was filled with bags.
The Lancashire-born actor, who lives in Shoreditch in east London, said she was travelling alone after visiting family and struggled to get on the train at Preston. When she went to take up the area she had reserved it was blocked with luggage. She told the Guardian she was then asked to move to the next carriage, where the disabled area was also filled with bags so she was asked to return to her original place.
There was no consensus at all between the staff what should be done, whether people should have to move their bags or not, it was me who had to step in and point to the sign that says there has to be disabled access in that area by law, she said.
The bags were eventually moved to enable Renke to take her place, but being surrounded by baggage there was absolutely no way of her getting to the toilet on the train, she said. I couldnt have a sip of water or a coffee. To be honest, it was so stressful I would have liked a glass of wine, but there was no way.
It comes after the Guardian revealed that the awardwinning Paralympic athlete Anne Wafula Strike was left to urinate on herself because CrossCountry trains failed to provide an accessible toilet on a three-hour journey.
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