Tanya Angus, Woman Who Couldn't Stop Growing, Dies at 34

[Kurovski]

As 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.

"'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.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57564241/tanya-angus-woman-who-couldnt-stop-growing-dies-at-34/


I'm just reminded of what a wide world of disabling conditions exists, and how we don't always know what others are going through, despite our own opinions and personal experiences.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Cross gently, Tanya.

Thank you for making the most of your predicament by drawing attention to it. Perhaps someday this cruel disease will be eradicated.

[niyad]

2. requiescat in pacem, tanya--you have certainly earned it.

[RudynJack]

3. How sad.

RIP Tanya.

[Ilsa]

4. I hope she's at peace.

And obviously, her body couldn't "handle it", so I have no idea what God was up to, even if he/she was involved in this tragedy.

[We People]

5. What a tragic story

Especially when afflicted with a rare disorder, very few except close family and medical personnel understanding such things.

She must have felt on top of the world when modeling, then was probably looked on with disdain by those who thought she merely "let herself go." That kind of criticism and rejection is hard enough to handle under ordinary circumstances. I'm sure it was a very lonely ordeal.

The picture of her sweet smile makes me want to cry. May she rest in peace.

[Kurovski]

6. I'm struck as well with how deeply she seemed to live her short life.

I was very touched by the whole of it. it seems to be a great story is here as well.

[We People]

7. You're right, that is the other way of looking at this - how meaningful her life was

and her positive, giving attitude. Thanks for posting it.