Super-fit PE teacher, 18 stone, barred from giving bone marrow for being 'too fat'

Carl Zaffino was delighted to learn he might be about to be selected to save someone's life.

A long-term blood donor, he had also been on the register of bone marrow donors for three years, assuming his physical health and fitness made him an ideal candidate.

But the 38-year-old PE teacher was rejected and taken off the national register after one brief telephone conversation because his Body Mass Index indicated he was obese.

Mr Zaffino is 5ft 10ins, well-built and weighs 18st. While he acknowledges he could 'lose a few pounds', he plays sport every day and says he is super-fit. He puts his weight down to 'very large and muscular legs'.

Unfortunately the charts indicated he had a serious weight problem with a BMI of 36.19 and the patient who may have been able to use his bone marrow must now look elsewhere. Anyone with a BMI of more than 35 cannot donate because of health risks associated with the medical procedures.

Father-of-five Mr Zaffino, from Huddersfield, said he was extremely frustrated he had been treated like a very fat man and that the system did not take into account differences between individuals. 'This is wrong,' he said.

'There is somebody out there whose life I might be able to save but there is nothing I can do about it. I was told regulations are regulations and that was that.'

Mr Zaffino received a letter from the National Blood Service on June 10 informing him he was a possible match for someone who needed a transplant.

He rang the listed number as requested to provide the service with more details about himself. But as soon as he gave his height and weight he was told: 'I'm sorry, your BMI is too high.'

'At first it was my ego that got hit,' he said. 'She must have been thinking I was really fat. I could maybe do with losing half a stone, but according to the charts I'm morbidly obese. They only take into account weight and height and nothing else.

'I have always been heavily built and a lot of that is down to my legs which are rock hard. I have low blood pressure, I don't drink, I don't smoke and I have low cholesterol.'

Mr Zaffino said the BMI chart showed his 'ideal weight' to be 12st 7lbs. He said: 'That's ridiculous. The only way I could lose six stone would be if you amputated one of my legs.'

A spokesman for National Blood Service confirmed that anyone with a BMI of over 35 was banned from donating because of possible risks involved in the general anaesthetic or the drug treatment used to produce extra stem cells. 'Our absolute priority has to be to safeguard donors' health,' she said.

Bone marrow transplants: The facts