A young woman in southwestern China has always worried about why she has been abnormally tall and sick since childhood. Now she worries that the illness causing the condition may take her life, Guizhou Metropolitan News reports.

Twenty-four-year-old An Li is 2.06 meters tall and still growing. She comes from the countryside of Tongren City in Guizhou Province. [Photo" gog.com.cn]

Twenty-four-year-old An Li is 2.06 meters tall and still growing. She comes from the countryside of Tongren City in Guizhou Province. She has grown faster than her peers since childhood, and was already 1.75 meters tall when she was 13 years old.

As an adult, she has had trouble finding a job. What's more, her health started deteriorating in the past few years and she has lost the sight in her right eye.

A hospital in Guiyang, the provincial capital, determined that a pituitary adenoma - tumors that grows in the pituitary gland - was causing her problems.

In April, An Li had surgery to cut the adenoma, but the tumor started growing again a few months later. Doctors say she may die if the tumor is not removed soon.

An Li's family is poor and lives in a rural area. They cannot afford to pay for their daughter's operation.

(CRI November 11, 2007)