Meet Tanya Angus, a thirty-year-old woman who suffers from the very rare, human-hormone-growth syndrome acromegaly. Born in 1979, Angus spent the first twenty years of her life relatively normal. However, at the age of twenty she started to notice some changes. Big changes.
At that time she was a tall, but slim, young female who was 5′ 11″ and weighed 115 pounds. But she noticed her clothes no longer fit her. Neither did her shoes. Worried about her increasing size, she talked to a few doctors, but was told one-by-one, that nothing was wrong with her. Now at the age of thirty she is 6-foot-6 and weighs 480 pounds. Doctor’s now recognize that she has acromegaly, but it might now be too late.
Acromegaly, a form of gigantism, is a syndrome that causes your pituitary gland - located in your brain - to produce excessive amounts of human growth hormones. This results in continual body growth, that lasts well past puberty and into and throughout adulthood. Perhaps the most well known carrier of acromegaly is Andre the Giant, a wrestler and actor most famous for appearing in the movie Princess Bride. Andre, however, never was treated and died at the age of 46 from heart problems.
Angus, on the other hand, is being treated. However, it might be too late, as her condition is proving resilient even against constant surgery. In the case of Angus, there is a large brain tumor wrapped around her pituitary gland, and even though several surgeries have tried to remove it, the tumor keeps coming back.
So the thirty-year-old woman has decided to fight back in another way. She’s telling her story. She’s gone to the media, to let her story be known and to try and warn other acromegaly suffers to receive treatment for the condition as soon as they can.
