A pub boss apologised last night after a cancer sufferer was reduced to tears when she was forced to reveal her bald head after a bouncer ordered her to remove a cap.

Denise Laybourne, 43, took to wearing a baseball cap after losing her hair through intensive chemotherapy treatment when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

But she was left humiliated when she was dragged out of a packed pub queue by the bouncer who ordered her to remove her hat.

And when she tried to explain her reasons the doorman at the Flares 70's bar in Newcastle's Bigg Market said: "It's not my fault you've got cancer".

Care worker, Denise, claims she was forced to stand in the pub without her hat.

She said: "I felt humiliated and angry. How can anyone be so insensitive? When I tried to explain why I was wearing the hat his reaction was disgusting.

"I just buried my head and went inside without my cap. I was in tears." Before being diagnosed with breast cancer in September last year Denise had long flowing blonde hair.

A mastectomy through her illness and losing her hair to chemotherapy had shattered her confidence.

She had tried a wig but hot-flush side effects from the cancer drug Tamoxsin meant she had to discard it and wear a cap instead.

Denise, who is divorced with a 23-year-old son, said: "I had just to say plucked up the courage to go out again. I used to have really long hair."

Pub owners Six Continents apologised and said the bouncer had been disciplined.

Janice Clark said: "In some of our outlets we do have a policy about not wearing baseball caps for security reasons.

"But if there is a genuine medical reason we obviously allow concessions. There was a misunderstanding and we have apologised unreservedly."