As if this man hasn’t been through enough already, he was recently brought down to the ground by an incredibly rude store manager in South Carolina. The 65-year-old Kirby Evans is a skin cancer survivor and has bravely fought a very tough battle.
While his cancer luckily didn’t take his life, the man lost his left eye and his nose to the disease.
With a small, fixed income, this man can’t afford to pay for reconstructive surgery. The cancerous basal cell carcinoma on his face had to be removed, and the only option was to surgically remove the left eye and nose completely.
Kirby also can’t wear an eyepatch, simply because the surrounding skin is too sensitive and it would only rub his skin raw and make things even worse. The man has learned to live with his appearance and hasn’t encountered any issues from the public – until now.
He simply entered a local convenience store to grab a donut and a drink but was asked a brutal question.
He paid for his meal and sat outside on a bench, but it didn’t take long before the manager of the store arrived and almost reprimanded him.
The manager simply “grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him into her office.” She then proceeded to tell him that his face was ‘scaring away’ customers and demanded that he’d cover up his face or leave the area altogether.
“She told him ‘If he was going to eat in here, he would have to cover his face, daughter Brandy Evans recalls. “He left and went home in tears to tell me what happened.”
The cancer survivor was left absolutely heartbroken.
“It hurt deep inside,” the man said to WCSC. “I’ve never been treated like that. Never.”
Kirby’s daughter was absolutely and rightfully enraged about the whole situation and wrote a long and heartfelt letter on her Facebook page. It quickly went viral with over eight thousand shares, and it didn’t take long before the entire city of Walterboro had heard about the story.
“My father is the strongest man I know but, as he told me what happened to him, I watched tears roll out of his eye,” his daughter wrote. “It hurt me to see him hurt like this, especially over something he cannot help. (…) You discriminated against my father for the way he looks.”
The manager in question then responded to the Facebook post as well.
She tried to defend herself and claimed that she “in no way tried to hurt [him]”, but that she had no choice because “it was running her customers off.”
The explanation wasn’t exactly well-received. An employee of the store commented and resigned on the spot. The comments of the store manager have been facing a lot of criticism and frustration, and the store manager and her husband have maintained a low profile ever since. Reportedly, the woman hasn’t been working in the store ever since the news about the incident spread out of fear for backlash.
Dozens of people on Facebook wanted to donate a small amount of money to help pay for Kirby’s reconstructional surgery costs, which inspired daughter Brandy to create a GoFundMe page.
In just four days, more than $74,000 had already been crowdfunded!
Brandy hopes that the money will suffice for all of the reconstruction surgeries to her father’s face, and she is overwhelmed by the support that they’ve received over the past few days.
“I’m telling you what, I didn’t know there’s that many people out there that cared,” Kirby told. “But there are. They’re out there. Everywhere.”
“It’s really made me proud to watch everybody rally around him and let him know that he doesn’t have to hide his battle scars,” daughter Brandy added.
Nobody deserves to be treated like this.
Luckily, thanks to the support of friends, family, the local community and strangers from all over the world, Kirby’s road to a full recovery looks bright again.
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Every one i Thank You for your support this sure is going to make him smile. In the morning i have to take my son to…
Posted by Brandy Evans onTuesday, October 9, 2018
