Woman in tears after fat shaming before 'hero' steps in
A woman has told of how she was fat-shamed on a flight by the man sitting next to her and how her faith in humanity was restored after the kind act of a stranger.
Savannah Phillips said she was heartbroken after she saw the man sitting next to her on a flight between Oklahoma and Illinois texting someone telling them he was sitting next to a “smelly fatty”.
“Before I knew it, I could feel hot, salty tears coming down my face,” she wrote on Facebook.
“I was shocked and it was like confirmation of the negative things I think about myself on a daily basis.”
Ms Phillips said she always tries to pick her seat so no one has to be “uncomfortable” sitting next to her but because her flight was changed she had her seat assigned to her.
“I’m not the biggest person on the airplane, but I’m not the smallest. My worst nightmare is someone being uncomfortable because they have to sit next to me,” she said.
“I sat and cried silently, hoping this guy didn’t try to make small talk, because I didn’t trust how I would react and I didn’t want to get kicked off the plane.”
Heartbroken family pay tribute to 14-year-old girl killed in hit and run
Heartbroken family pay tribute to 14-year-old girl killed in hit and run
After being told the plane was going to be delayed, Ms Phillips starting cringing at the thought of having to sit next to the man for longer than she had to, until a man behind them, Chase Irwin, spoke up.
The man tapped the fat-shamer on the shoulder and asked to talk to him. He said they were going to switch seats because he knew the man was texting about Savannah and he was “not putting up with that”.
The man swapped seats and then comforted Ms Phillips who he could see was visibly upset by what happened.
“He encouraged me not to let that guy get to me and that everything was going to be fine,” Ms Phillips said.
Mr Irwin told News Channel 5 he was going to wait until the end of the flight to say something but didn’t want Ms Phillips sitting next to the man the whole flight.
“It really gets to me deep down when I see someone crying, and when I saw her crying it really hit me hard and actually got sick to my stomach,” he said.
Ms Phillips called Mr Irwin her “hero”.
