Joining the RAF after leg injury

[foofooyeah]

Hi there, My son wants to join the RAF, he went along to a recruitment centre and they said as he broke his leg in Nov he would have to wait one year from when he was signed off until he applied. He broke ihs fibula (not load bearing) so was only in plaster for a couple of weeks. He may not have mentioned it was a minro bone. Can anyone give any advice if he can just go ahead and apply of if he sould wait a year - he is already excercising again bac

If they've said wait a year, it's because they mean it. The Forces have rules for everything!

You can appeal against a health-based rejection (whether permanent or temporary bar), but this will take time and might therefore not make much difference in practice to when they begin to process the application. He won't stand a chance in an appeal until he is fully signed off from the team that is treating him, and he will need additional paperwork to show that the broken bone is fully healed and there is no compromise to its strength (you may need to pay to get additional letters done privately).

Initial training is arduous - these rules are in place for good reason, as there is no way they would want to compromise someone's future well-being by putting strain on any body parts where there is reason to believe there may be pre-existing weakness. Nor do they want to lose promising recruits to avoidable physical issues. There may be space to make a case to relaunch an application earlier than the standard interval though, as these are set conservatively.

Thanks meditrina, he was disappointed and I wondered if he had said it was his fibula or not? Hes not here at the moment so will question him more closely when hes back

He has his last appt at hospital next week (which incidentally is an NHS/MOD hospital so see if they can put something on his records to say he is signed off and fully fit (if he is of course) , then he will just have to wait it out I suppose. Or perhaps try again after the summer.

Thanks again