Tanya Angus was a normal young woman until her body was transformed by a cruel and deadly disorder.
Just 10 years ago,Tanya Anguswas a healthy, vibrant and beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her. As a teenager, she would go to the beach with her family, happily wearing a bikini that showed off her well-proportioned 170cm-tall, 68kg body.
Now, her 198cm frame carries a weight of 217kg ?and Tanya fears stepping anywhere near the sand, or any public place.
“I’ve been asked to leave a salon because of my size,” she says. “They thought their chair was going to break.”
Tanya was leading the life of a normal young adult until she noticed in 2000 that her hands, feet, face and entire body, were growing and growing. Her condition became so debilitating that the devastated young woman ? who had left home only a year before ? lost her job and was forced to move back in with her parents.
Eventually she was diagnosed with the life-threatening disorder known as acromegaly, a condition often referred to as “gigantism”. A tumour was causing an overproduction of growth hormone. Doctors were able to remove only part of the tumour, but not all of it, leaving Tanya with horrific physical and emotion scars.
“A lot of people have said I look like a man or a drag queen,” she says. “I grew up normal. I wasn’t ready to hear that.”
Tanya’s condition means she has had to undergo several back operations because the discs in her spine have been pulverised by her weight.
She now cannot stand for more than a few minutes at a time. Even resting causes constant pain and she must take 28 different medications just to stay alive, costing her struggling family thousands of dollars a month.
Do you or someone you know also suffer from a life-threatening disorder like Tanya? Share your story below..
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