We've all heard about the problem of fat children, but now it seems Britain's obesity crisis is making its effects felt at the other end of the life cycle, too.

Bereaved relatives are having to travel to Bristol because furnaces at the Astwood Road crematorium are too small to accommodate the oversized coffins of Worcester's stouter citizens.

It highlights the problems our growing population is causing from the cradle to the grave.

It was only recently that we heard how hospitals were having to fork out thousands of pounds for sturdier trolleys because they were dealing with so many overweight patients.

We don't know what those people were being treated for, nor how the six people who were too fat for Worcester's furnaces last year died.

But we do know that obesity is bad for your health and can shorten your life quite dramatically.

We could, of course, simply accept that people are getting bigger and expand our infastructure to fit them.

However, that would cost a lot of taxpayers' money - and it also means capitulating to a health crisis that means misery and the danger of an early death for millions.

Astwood Road crematorium is perfectly adequate for the vast majority of Worcester's citizens, and people who are grossly overweight will simply have to accept that when they die - which could be sooner rather than later - their final journey may be down the M5.

Those who keep their weight in check, on the other hand, can look forward to a longer, healthier life, safe in the knowledge that when their time comes, they'll fit in the furnace.