Tanya Angus, woman who couldn't stop growing, dies at 34

This undated photo provided by Tina Valle shows Tanya Angus after contracting her growth disease. / AP

LAS VEGASAs a teenager growing up in Las Vegas, Tanya Angus strutted along fashion runways. She was 5 feet 8 inches, and people told her she had a perfect body.

But at the time of her death Monday, the 34-year-old Angus stood 7 feet 2 inches and weighed about 400 pounds. She was a victim of a rare disorder called acromegaly - or gigantism - that wouldn't let her stop growing.

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"'Mom, I don't know why I got it,'" Karen Strutynski recalled her daughter saying. "'But I guess God decided that I could handle it.'"

Handle it she did - by appearing on television specials and in the news, by being vulnerable about a condition that left her face misshapen and gave her chronic growing pains.

Acromegaly is a disorder in which there is too much growth hormone in the body. It's spurred by a non-cancerous tumor that grows on the pituitary gland, and causes growth of bones and organs.

The disorder affected just about everything for Angus. She couldn't pull even the largest of shirts over her head, because she couldn't fit through the collar. She needed specially made shoes, and jewelers stretched her rings to size 20.

"There's nothing made for giants," her mother explained.

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Some people judged her daughter, Strutynski said, believing she used a wheelchair because she lacked the discipline to keep her weight down. What they didn't know is that she ate one meal a day, and her medications caused her face to swell.

"People were very cruel until she went into the media," Strutynski said.

After television appearances, Angus became an advocate for those with the disease, corresponding with people from some 60 countries to help them get the treatment they needed.

She saw her mission as helping others get diagnosed before it was too late and the disease got out of control, her mother said.

An autopsy is pending, but Strutynski said it appears Angus died after catching a cold and developing a tear in her big heart.

Her mother plans to keep up Angus' website and continue corresponding with patients struggling to deal with the disease.

"We can't let it end. It's just too important," Strutynski said, her voice cracking. "We can't just let it die with Tanya."

For more information on Tanya, visit the website dedicated to her legacy.

[samuel5028]

It's so sad to hear... A challenging and inspiration for everyone...God Bless...

[Valhalla0907]

The disease is fortune and fame in men. Andre the Giant, Paul Wight(The Big Show), and lately The Great Khali(who is obviously too ill for athletics). Ms. Tanya suffered far more scorn and ridicule because she was a woman. God bless and rest her!

[mandiegracetaylor]

I followed her story and admired her - she will be missed in this world.

[anitaymoore]

Breaks my heart to think of the cruelty from people she faced during her life...going from "you have the perfect body" and being admired to being judged as fat and lazy while in a wheelchair with a misshapen face. People are just so fast to make snap judgements about others when they have no idea what is going on...I feel for her. She really seems to have handled things with patience and grace. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family for their loss.

[canislupus16]

RIP, God bless

[bckrd1]

May God bless her. A true inspiration and a lesson to all of us to be kind to one another. And we should not judge others until we have walked in their shoes.

[askagain]

This is so sad. Whenever I am feeling depressed or ill, I think of how other people have problems much worse than my own. Rest In Peace Tanya Angus.