A man who is said to be the love interest of a woman "trapped in the body of an eight-year-old" has hit back at critics who trolled him online.
Shauna Rae Lesick - star of TLC's I Am Shauna Rae - is 3 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 50 pounds at 23 years of age after undergoing treatment for brain cancer as an infant which subsequently affected her pituitary gland, resulting in her developing pituitary dwarfism.
Due to her condition, Shauna has been open about how finding love can be tricky and that she worries that she will attract the wrong sort of attention.
Another factor that makes a romantic life tricky is the negative attention that any potential partner will receive online, as one man, unfortunately, came to find.
Dan Swygart, 26, reached out to Shauna after seeing the show and the pair began chatting which led to them meeting up on more than one occasion.
After appearing on the TLC show, Dan was met with a wall of online abuse, with some branding him a "creep" for his alleged interest in Shauna.
The Welsh traveler has since hit back at his critics via Instagram, where he has responded to the unfounded claims that his interest in Shauna wasn't sincere.
Dan said in a video: "Me and Shauna are still just really good friends getting to know each other, but I think it’s absolutely disgusting, the attitude of some people.
Check out what Dan had to say below:"She’s been through so much in her life - she survived cancer as a child, she’s always felt different and been treated differently by society.
"But how dare you take away her right, her human right, to have a connection, a friendship, a relationship with someone else? Who are you to say that she can’t have that?
"I am absolutely disgusted about some people’s attitudes towards her and my friendship with her. I cannot believe some people who deny her the right to have a friendship or a connection with someone else."
Dan stated that nobody has the right to take away Shauna's opportunities to have real friendships and connections with people after what she has been through.
"She is a human being, she’s a cancer survivor, she’s got a disability, she has dwarfism [...] How dare you? How dare you?" Dan concluded.
The 26-year-old's parents have also jumped to his defense, claiming that there is nothing romantic happening between the pair and they have struck up a platonic relationship.
