A CANCER sufferer says her confidence has been dented after she was not allowed to wear her hat in a Dunfermline pub.

Angela Edwards (41), of Letham Gait, Dalgety Bay, started losing her hair last summer after receiving treatment for breast cancer.

She wears a wig but needs to put a hat over it in windy weather to prevent the hairpiece falling off.

Having endured surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she was beginning to get her confidence back before the incident in the Seven Kings in the town centre.

Mrs Edwards, who has completed her treatment but is still on medication, said, “Myself and my husband had just walked in.

“We’d never been in before and thought we’d go for lunch and see what it was like.

“The girl said sit wherever you like and told me to remove my hat. Then she just turned and went away. I didn’t have the chance to ask why.

“It made me feel like some sort of freak or alien.”

The couple left the pub after the incident.

Mrs Edwards phoned the pub to explain what had happened and was told that owner Belhaven had a strictly hat-free policy within its premises.

She said the trauma of what happened has put her off going to public places.

She said, “I know pubs prohibit football colours because it could lead to trouble, but my hat wasn’t covering my face. It wasn’t a balaclava and I don’t look scary in it.

“But this has made me really wary of wearing it and if I don’t my wig can fall off and has in the past.

“I started wearing my wig last July and it has taken me about six months to feel confident enough to go out, but this has dented my confidence.

“I’m not looking for sympathy but I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

Mrs Edwards, mother of Kris (17), Sean (8) and Gemma (4), still has to take tablets and will have to undergo examinations for the next five years.

She is confident of a good recovery, however, and is hopeful her hair will have mostly grown back by summer.

Belhaven was contacted but declined to comment.