Teenager Grows Eight Inches In Just One Year. Why?

Teenager Grows Eight Inches In Just One Year. Why?
Wales News

A teenage boy has grown an astonishing eight inches in a year after an operation to remove a brain tumour.

Keiran Halliday, 19, has shot up from 5ft 6ins to 6ft 2ins in the last 12 months and his feet have grown from a size six to a nine.

And doctors are unsure if he will ever stop growing.

Keiran had been growing at a normal rate but then he started suffering from severe headaches.

After tests, doctors discovered the teenager had a tumour the size of a golf ball on his pituitary gland in his brain.

Surgeons successfully removed the tumour and Keiran was given the all clear.

But ever since, Keiran, from Bridgend, South Wales, has been growing at a rapid rate caused by a condition called acromegaly, which causes gigantism.

It is caused by the pea-sized pituitary gland making more growth hormone than Keiran's body needs.

It has also caused Keiran to put on weight and have seizures. He now has to take 12 tablets and an injection every day.

His mum Caroline, 54, told her local paper: "He had the operation just before Christmas but then we noticed over the next few months that his body was changing dramatically.

"He shot up in height and he put on loads of weight - none of his clothes would fit him so I had to buy him a whole new wardrobe."

Keiran said: "It's been really difficult for me and my mum. I can't go out and see my mates because I could have a seizure.

"I'm on all sorts of medication but even with all of that doctors don't actually know if I'll stop growing or not.

"I wanted to get into media but I can't go to college because of my condition.

"I just hope one day I can get back to normal and carry on with a normal life like I had before."

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