Fifty-one years old Barry Fowers has been asked to take voluntary redundancy as he was considered as a threat to others as well as himself because he weighed a life-threatening 30 stone.

Until October last year he worked assembling industrial power source equipment.

And due to insurance analysts deciding that he was a major risk for others, Fowers reluctantly accepted voluntary redundancy.

Fowers was 30 years old when he had his first heart attack and he is told that another would prove fatal for him.

He is suffering from various problems like being obese, back problem, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, heart problems and angina.

Incapacity benefit was given to him initially but this does not make him qualify for Employment and Support Allowance worth around £75 a week. At the moment he is receiving £21.65 a week as a Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Fowers, who worked for ten years at Crestchic in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, said, “I had to climb onto platforms about a metre from the ground to get to the equipment and install parts. They were worried I might pass out through my diabetes and have a hypothyroidism, or have a heart attack.”

He added that he was told by a medical person after he had a little incident that his weight was a danger to himself and to others in case he fell off a platform while working.