Zeng Jinlian; June 26, 1964 – February 13, 1982) was the tallest female ever recorded in medical history, taking Jane Bunford's record. She is also the only female counted among the twelve individuals in medical history who reached a verified eight feet or more. At the time of her death at the age of 17, in Hunan, China, she was 8 ft 1.75 in (249 cm) tall. However, she could not stand up straight due to a severely deformed spine. Nevertheless, she was the tallest person in the world at the time. In the year between the death of 8 feet 2 inch Don Koehler and her own, she surpassed fellow 'eight-footers' Gabriel Estêvão Monjane and Suleiman Ali Nashnush. Her growth patterns mirrored those of Robert Wadlow, as shown by the table below.
Jane "Jinny" Bunford (26 July 1895 – 1 April 1922) is the tallest person in English medical history, measuring 2.41 m (7 ft 11 in) at the time of her death. She was the tallest person in the world during her lifetime, and she still may hold two further records - that she was twice the tallest living person in the world, - between 1916 and 1919, and between 20 May 1921 and 1 April 1922. and that she could have had the longest hair in Britain, during her lifetime. She is the tallest person ever recorded in England, Scotland or Wales, and the tallest person recorded in Britain since September 1806. At the time of her death she was also the tallest woman in world medical history, a record that stood for the next sixty years. Jane Bunford continues to be one of the most mysterious giants to have lived during the 20th century. Not much is known about her, and no photographs, if any still do exist, have ever been seen by or shown to the general public. Jane was listed in the Guinness Book of Records between 1972 and 2001 but they only once published a photograph of her skeleton and a copy of her death certificate, which they obtained on 10 February 1972. A copy of it appeared at the foot of page 11 in the 1972 publication.
Yao Defen (born July 15, 1972) is the tallest living woman, as recognized by Guinness World Records. She stands 7 ft 8 in tall (2.34 m), weighs 200 kilograms (440 lb), and has size 26 (UK) / 78 (EU) feet. Her gigantism is due to a tumor in her pituitary gland. Yao Defen was born to poor farmers in the town of Liuan in the Anhui province of Shucheng County. At birth she weighed 6.16 pounds. At the age of three years she was eating more than three times the amount of food that other three-year-old children were eating. When she was eleven years old she was about six feet, two inches tall. She was six feet nine inches tall by the age of fifteen years. The story of this "woman giant" began to spread rapidly after she went to see a doctor at the age of fifteen years for an illness. After that, many companies attempted to train her to be a sports star. The plans were abandoned, however, because Defen was too weak. Because she is illiterate, since 1992 Yao Defen has been forced to earn a living by traveling with her father and performing. Yao Defen's giant stature was caused by a large tumor in the pituitary gland of her brain, which was releasing too much growth hormone and caused excessive growth in her bones. Six years ago, a hospital in Guangzhou Province removed the tumor, and she stopped growing. The tumor returned and she was treated in Shanghai in 2007, but was sent home for six months with the hope that medication would reduce her tumor enough to allow surgery. The second surgery was never performed due to lack of funds. In 2009, the TLC cable TV network devoted a whole night's show to her. She suffered from a fall in her home and had internal bleeding of the brain. She recovered and felt some happiness after a visit from China's tallest man, Zhang Juncai.
Sandra Elaine "Sandy" Allen (June 18, 1955 – August 13, 2008) was a U.S. woman recognized as the tallest woman during her life according to Guinness World Records. She was 7 ft. 7¼ in. (232 cm) in height. Allen wrote a book titled Cast A Giant Shadow, and appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records since 1976. Although over the years other women have taken over the title, Allen had held it for the last eighteen years of her life. Her abnormal height was due to a tumor in her pituitary gland that caused it to release growth hormone uncontrollably. At the age of twenty-two years, she underwent surgery for the condition. Lacking this procedure, Allen would have continued to grow and suffer further medical problems associated with gigantism. She appeared in the Academy Award-winning Italian film Il Casanova di Federico Fellini, in a TV movie called Side Show, and in a Canadian/American documentary film called Being Different. The New Zealand band Split Enz immortalized her in a song, "Hello Sandy Allen," released on their 1982 album Time and Tide. Allen never married and was reported to have never had a serious boyfriend. In later years Allen used a wheel-chair because her legs and back could not support her tall stature in a standing position. At one point in her life, she was bedridden due to disease, causing atrophy of the muscles. Because of this limitation, she spent her last years in Shelbyville, Indiana, in a retirement center, the same one as Edna Parker, a previous record holder of oldest living human. The Indianapolis Star reports that Allen died early in the morning of August 13, 2008 from sepsis of the blood.