Thanks for sharing your experience, and sorry to hear of your injuries during your Service albeit that you sound well supported, such things are never easy and take courage and commitment; after I had most of my pancreas out for cancer, I went to Headley Court (precious home of military rehab to those not in the know) and was on the ward with those with significant life-changing trauma injuries and their positive attitude and determination was unbelievable and inspirational.

Sadly, catheterisation isn’t an option in this case as urinating isn’t the issue.

Sounds like a terrible experience; sorry to hear of it.

Was there not an option to just carry on to the CW toilet? Easy to say in hindsight I know but I would have been tempted to steam on and talk about it after I'd been to the toilet.

Good luck in your return journey

I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome as part of the symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis. When it flares up I can go from 0 to urgency in less than 5 minutes, several times a day. So I am completely sympathetic to what happens to you.
There is very little education of the public about all the chronic diseases out there that actually are not that rare, and what it means. Since usually there is also a tendency to automatically assume people are cheating this makes like harder. The CC was simply wrong and I know hindsight is easy, but I do endorse CWS comments, passing her would have been the right thing to do, to explain it after.

i will say this incident should not deter you to travel, quite the contrary. You obviously need to learn to adapt as this is new to you but you can travel with a few twists you will need to make.

Interestingly i will travel with the sunflower lanyard to LHR for the first time this weekend, I will see if it is helpful with the staff.

@navylad, I’m so sorry to read about your experience. People have given good advice, I only want to add a couple of things.

firstly that the sunflower lanyard is a relatively new thing specific to uk airports. It only tells people you have a hidden ailment but that’s it.

secondly, as someone who’s traveled the last seven years with hidden disabilities, you need to be upfront with what you need. In your case , That means you make the csd aware of what you need, Regardless of whether they’re distracted by other passengers. You matter just as much!
Show them a medical card if it have to but you need to but make them understand in advance.

First wing can take minutes at the right time

Thanks, and whilst yes I am aware that the sunflower lanyard has been around only for a couple of years, of which it more recently got introduced to LHR, one would hope that CC received sufficient training (I’m informed you get disability training on an annual basis) to know what it means. This is clearly a lesson that BA could take away and had they put that in their reply, it may of indeed sounded less disingenuous a response, friends are telling me to go down the media route as it is more likely to have a response across the company, but this would also perpetuate the embarrassment.

At the end of the day, I’m not compo hungry, I want to be suitable reassured that my flight back will be less risky of which some of the advice received here will help, but I do think a reasonable response from BA would be to allow me to cut short my holiday by two days in order that I can take them up on their uograde offer and travel with less anxiety.

One could of course take legal action, they have breached the Equality Act after all and get a reasonable pay out to donate to a suitable charity if they are totally unwilling to actually be flexible and supportive in their response.

I’ve asked them to escalate the complaint if necessary outside of CR if they are unable to deal with supporting my safe travel home and will await their response before considering any further action required. I will also speak to the accessibility team again once they are open on Monday (phone line permitting).

With respect to security lines, I was straight through at LHR without any issues (circa 3 minutes) and could have always explained and backtracked to a toilet if required. And I was at the airport 4 hours before the flight, used the facilities on arrival to limit the risk.

Oh and to address the suggestion that I just carry on to the toilet, the )6ft CC (male) was stood wide standard in the aisle shouting, there was no way I could get around him without getting physical, and quick-curffs was the last thing I needed.

Thanks so far for everyone’s understanding (mostly) and suggestions.