She is the world's first female giant, half a head taller than Yao Ming, wearing size 78 shoes, and able to eat two catties of rice and six bowls of noodles every day. However, behind her towering height that broke the Guinness record, there are endless troubles. Besides the various inconveniences in daily life, she also suffers from the torment of illness.
Why did she grow so tall? What stories are there in her life?
Born in an ordinary village in Anhui Province in 1972, Yao Defen's parents were simple farmers who made a living by farming, with very unstable income.
Yao Defen was unusually tall since childhood, standing out among other children of the same age by a big margin at the age of three or four. When she started elementary school, her height skyrocketed, and she was as tall as an adult at the age of 10.
Her parents originally thought their daughter would stop growing at around 1.7 meters, but they didn't expect Yao Defen's height to continue to soar after entering junior high school.
Moreover, her appetite grew larger and larger, and she could eat more than the whole family in one meal. During her junior high school years, she had to eat two catties of rice and six bowls of noodles every day just to barely satisfy her hunger.
By the time she was 15, Yao Defen had already exceeded two meters in height, standing taller than the teacher on the podium by one or two heads. To avoid affecting the classes of other students, Yao Defen always sat at the back of the classroom.
Due to her extraordinary height, Yao Defen had almost no friends from childhood to adulthood. In junior high school, the girls often gathered together to discuss various matters of the heart, but whenever Yao Defen approached, they would awkwardly look up at this "huge creature."
The boys in the class were even more excessive, always giving Yao Defen various nicknames, calling her "female monster, alien," and every time Yao Defen passed by them, she would be ridiculed.
Isolated, Yao Defen became more introverted, gradually closing herself off and not daring to speak casually with others.
Recruited to Play Basketball
Life at school was very depressing, and Yao Defen gradually developed a liking for sports. She found that due to her height advantage, playing basketball was very easy for her, and she often won in competitions.
Her outstanding talent quickly caught the attention of the Anhui Provincial Sports Team, and she was recruited to play basketball.
Yao Defen was thrilled to hear this news and quickly joined the provincial basketball team's training. Here, she discovered that the basketball players were all tall, and her height no longer stood out so much. Yao Defen felt a sense of belonging for the first time.
Since many of the players on the provincial basketball team had been practicing since they were young, there was a big gap between Yao Defen and them. She worked harder to learn basketball skills and often practiced alone after the other teammates rested.
The Shattered Dream of Basketball
However, just when she thought she had finally been accepted, an accident shattered her dream of basketball.
During a practice, she accidentally fell to the ground, then felt weak in her limbs, dizzy and nauseous, and then lost consciousness and fell into a coma.
When she woke up again, Yao Defen found herself lying on a hospital bed, with her parents sitting anxiously beside her.
The doctor told Yao Defen that her height was not naturally like this, but because she suffered from a rare condition called "gigantism."
The cause of gigantism was a pituitary tumor in Yao Defen's brain, leading to excessive secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland.
This news was like a bolt from the blue for Yao Defen. Because of her illness, she was forced to quit the basketball team and undergo conservative treatment in the hospital.
In order to help treat their daughter, Yao Defen's parents had to go out to work to make money. After several years, Yao Defen's condition finally stabilized.
Just as the family could finally breathe a sigh of relief and welcome a new life, Yao Defen's father suddenly fell ill and died soon after, leaving the burden of the family entirely on Yao Defen's mother.
To help alleviate some of the pressure on her mother and reduce the family's burden, Yao Defen found a job performing in a circus, entertaining others with her special height.
Although the work was tough and the income meager, Yao Defen always kept her family in mind, sending most of her monthly salary back to her mother in her hometown.
Undergoing Surgery
During this period, Yao Defen's height continued to grow slowly until 1999 when the situation took a turn for the worse.
Yao Defen's health deteriorated rapidly, and she frequently fainted, with unstable blood sugar and blood pressure levels.
With no choice, Yao Defen chose to undergo surgery at a well-known hospital in Guangzhou to remove the tumor in her brain that caused gigantism.
The surgery was extremely challenging, but under the strict supervision of various neurological experts at the hospital, Yao Defen finally successfully completed the operation.
During her hospital stay, Yao Defen recovered very healthily without any complications from the surgery.
Although Yao Defen was discharged from the hospital soon after the surgery, there was still about a 3-centimeter residue of the tumor that caused the condition, which had not been completely removed, and the released growth hormone was more than ten times that of a normal person.
The surgery in Guangzhou not only temporarily restored Yao Defen's health but also brought her worldwide attention. Many media outlets vied to interview her, and more and more people saw the girl tormented by "gigantism."
With the assistance of people from various places, Yao Defen continued to seek solutions to the "leftover problems" in her body.
The Painful Life After Surgery
In 2006, she went to Shanghai Ruijin Hospital for consultation with multidisciplinary experts, but no new solutions were found, and she could only continue with conservative treatment.
After treatment in Shanghai, Yao Defen returned to her hometown in Shucheng County. Her condition did not fully improve, and the aftermath of the brain tumor removal surgery gradually erupted with age.
Due to the uniqueness of the surgical area, Yao Defen developed epilepsy symptoms in 2006 and had to take medication daily to suppress it.
In addition, Yao Defen developed small lumps on her body, which were found to be intestinal obstruction after examination at the hospital. Doctors speculated that this might also be due to her abnormal hormone levels over the years affecting her body's normal metabolic processes, and because of her massive size, excessive pressure on the intestines led to the condition.
Due to her illness and financial difficulties at home, Yao Defen had to reduce her food intake. She repeatedly told visiting journalists that her current wish was to have a full meal.
Breaking the Guinness Record
Soon after Yao Defen returned home, German shoe store owner Wessels noticed this special girl through the news.
He found that Yao Defen had no suitable shoes to wear due to her physique, and the leather shoes on her feet had cracked open. So he personally made three pairs of size 78 shoes for her to help solve the difficulty of buying shoes.
Wessels' help warmed Yao Defen, and she was very grateful to this kind-hearted person from a foreign country.
In 2009, Yao Defen suffered a serious head injury from a fall, narrowly escaping death, and was left paralyzed in bed ever since.
In 2010, Yao Defen's height reached 2.4 meters, breaking the Guinness record, and she was hailed as the "world's first female giant."
In 2012, after three years of lying in bed, Yao Defen passed away under the pressure of various diseases and psychological stress.
Conclusion
In her short 40 years of life, Yao Defen experienced countless setbacks and suffered from multiple illnesses. But she always maintained a positive and optimistic attitude, facing the challenges the world brought her with resilience.
In her final days, she said, "I do not regret coming into this world. Although God gave me a different height, it also allowed me to see the warmth of humanity."
While Yao Defen felt the warmth, she also brought warmth and courage to others in the world.