8 months pregnant woman forced to stand on train for more than 30 minutes because businessman refused to get out of the seat she'd booked

A heavily-pregnant woman was forced to stand on a train for 30 minutes when a businessman would not give up the seat she reserved. Mhari-Claire Doolan, who is 34 weeks pregnant with her first child, boarded the train from Birmingham New Street to Manchester Piccadilly around 5.30pm on August 26.

The 29-year-old showed the man her ticket, which had proof of her reservation on, but claimed he then 'laughed in her face' and refused to move until he got to his stop. Miss Doolan, from Manchester, said she was left embarrassed and concerned she would have to stand for the entire hour-and-a-half journey. The recruitment manager said: 'I was already tired and in pain and to be honest I'm so heavily pregnant I should probably not be travelling by train, so I made sure I had a seat booked. 'I told him I had that seat booked and positioned myself so that he could see I was pregnant but he just ignored me. 'The electronic booking system had broken so I showed him my ticket. He looked at it and then just laughed in my face and turned away. 'I was left standing for more than half an hour, which was almost unbearable but I didn't want to ask for someone else's seat and get laughed at again. 'My back ached, my feet ached and I felt sick. I was in a lot of pain but luckily a seat eventually came free.' She added that she was angered by the other passengers, who chose not to do anything. She said: 'No one did anything to help or intervene and no one offered me their seat. People just averted their eyes and pretended they hadn't seen it.' Miss Doolan later asked a ticket inspector whether she had been in the wrong, but he confirmed the man most likely removed her paper reservation from the top of the seat. She added: 'I always thought it was an unspoken rule that you give up your seat for pregnant ladies or you allow them to get on the train first. It's just polite. 'But everyone just pushed me out of the way to get on the train and this man just laughed in my face when I said I had reserved the seat - maybe this is how people travel now? 'My mum would be angry with me if she ever saw me treating people like that. 'My boyfriend Dan was very angry about it. He was fuming that this man could do this to me.'

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