Leonid Stadnyk, who held the record of world’s tallest man, has died aged 44.
A peasant farmer from the north-western Ukrainian village of Podoliantsy, he died on Sunday from a cerebral haemorrhage, linked to health problems caused by his height, the Mirror UK reported.
Stadnyk measured a towering height of almost almost 8 feet, 5 inches (2.6 metres).
His height became abnormal when he was aged 14, and a benign tumour in his brain caused a gland to continually secrete growth hormones – meaning he never stopped growing. At its worst his condition, known as giganticism, caused him to grow at the rate of roughly one foot every three years.
In 2007, he was briefly named the world’s tallest man by the Guiness World Records, but refused to be measured by the organisation. The title was instead given to China’s Bao Xishun, who stands at 2.36m tall.