Mum ‘broken’ after disabled daughter, 7, is forced to sit on floor of Sports Direct shop

A MUM was left “broken” and crying outside a Sports Direct shop after her disabled seven-year-old daughter was forced to sit on the floor.

Ann-marie Yönetci said she was disgusted when she visited the Cornwall store after she was told the lift taking customers from the street to the first floor had been out of action for months.

The little girl is pictured sitting on the ground of the shop after staff insisted the lift was broken

The mother-of-three was then forced to carry her seven-year-old daughter – who is wheelchair bound – upstairs, creating a “humiliating experience” for them both.

Ann-marie visited the shop on Monday with her three kids after she said a present she ordered online for her son was lost by the retailer and she needed to buy a replacement in time for his birthday on Sunday.

When she arrived, she was told the lift to access the store’s first floor had been out of action for months – and even had an umbrella stand in front of it.

Ann-marie said she was then forced to leave her kids – Yasmin, 7, who is disabled, her twin brother, Emre, and their brother Yusuf, 9 – on the street as she went upstairs to ask if the shop could be accessed with a wheelchair.

When she was told she couldn’t, Ann-marie said she then carried her daughter up the escalators with no assistance from staff.

She said Yasmin then had to hold onto a display of basketballs to support herself as she is able to stand but cannot walk.

The mother added that Yasmin would have to crawl on the floor to keep up with her family as they manoeuvred around the shop.

Ann-marie said: ”My daughter’s eight on Sunday and she’s had this disability from birth, but never once have I been made to feel belittled and small like I was in Sports Direct.

“I don’t want my daughter to feel that it’s her fault that I struggled that day.

“In this day and age a lift should not be out of order for months and there should be wheelchair access for disabled customers.”

Ann-marie said she burst into tears after she left the shop and felt “broken” by the experience.

The Truro store’s website currently states that it does provide wheel-chair access.

A supervisor at the Truro store told Cornwall Live: “I completely understand the lift being out of order is annoying – we have been waiting for a part from Germany so it can be fixed.

“We are aware this can be a problem for people and do everything we can to help.

“I am 100 per cent sure that staff would have helped this lady – I think there was some miscommunication at the start.”

Ann-marie, who has since spoken to the store and agreed it was a
“miscommunication”, added: “I just want head office to realise that
the lift being out of order for so long is not acceptable.”

The Sun Online has contacted Sports Direct’s media team and customer service team for a comment.

The shop’s broken lift was blocked by an umbrella stand