Standing at 6ft 6ins and weighing 34 stone, Tanya Angus has been dubbed a modern day giant - and she is still growing.
She has gained ten inches in just 12 years as a result of a rare growth condition, and is already one of the tallest and heaviest women on the planet.
Now doctors say Miss Angus, 30, from Nevada,is the only woman in the world whose growth cannot be halted by medication.
Suffering from a rare disease known as Acromeglia, a condition often referred to as "gigantism" where the body produces too much growth hormone, Miss Angus grew from a slender 5ft 8ins at the age of 18 to 6ft 6ins and 34 stone.
"I'm staying hopeful," she said."Without hope you don't have anything. I hope they can stop me growing one day so I can try to live as normally as possible."
Miss Angus's troubles began in her late teens when she noticed that her feet, face and figure were continuing to grow at an alarming rate."I started to feel unhappy with my appearance. I started spending a fortune on make-up, trying to make myself look better. I couldn't understand why my face didn't look as attractive any more," she said.
She also began suffering severe migraines and felt run down and depressed, as if she was suffering from constant flu.But though she kept going to see her GP, he believed the 20-year-old was just an attention-seeker hoping to be given anti-depressant drugs, and refused to help.
Even more shockingly Miss Angus's figure started to alter, and the once womanly body, became larger overall, and straight up and down like a man's body."Someone at work actually asked me if I used to be a man," she said.
The family GP immediately recognised the signs of gigantism and referred Miss Angus to a specialist. At that stage she was 6ft 1ins tall, and a size 14 to 16, with a size 10 feet.
An MRI scan eventually showed a tumour the size of a grapefruit in her brain which had wrapped itself around her inner carotid artery, causing an overproduction of growth hormone. It was so big, doctors at first said there was nothing to be done. But Miss Angus's mother, Karen, searched the Internet and medical publications until she finally found a doctor who said he could operate.
In 2003, she Tanya finally underwent surgery to remove most of the tumour, although small parts of it were too difficult to separate from her brain. She was then given a cocktail of drugs to try to control the huge amounts of growth hormones still in her body.
Tanya had a count of 3,000 of the hormones, compared to an average person's of just 250.Doctors were anxious to bring the level down to less than 1,000, but they were barely able to do that. Her height had crept up to 6ft 3ins, and she was now a size 20.
Unable to walk properly, and had to live with her mum and stepdad. She barely went out and was subjected to stares and make rude comments in the street.
