World's Smallest People

Imagine what it's like living in a giant's world. Midget, midget, midget, you're just known as the midget. You have no other identity. With everyday tasks beyond your reach. I hook it onto my pants to push my pants down. Being overlooked by everyone. Batting on the head, is that any cue? And when your size is the biggest joke in town. They don't have the culture to accept people who are different with them. Meek, mild, disabled person. Oh look, she's over there in a scooter. She's, you know, helpless. No, I've got ---- to do. These are the stories of some of the most extraordinary people on the planet. This is called a starfish hand. I can only just put hands together. They are the people who will never grow up. Seven. My feet are like little miniature teddy bear feet. But want to live like the rest of us. Annie Lee is not traditionally the kind of woman that a man might pursue. You're going to get down and dirty. We're all the same size lying down. Not everything about me is small. If I was going to be small, it would be the actual smallest. Not just being a small person. So, personally I wish I'd picked on someone else. Michael Henbury is officially Britain's shortest man. At a mere two foot eleven, he's the same height as the average three-year-old child. Every room seems quite fit to me. And for me to rest my feet, I have to have them run up onto the settee and sit there. Which is normally like this. Voila. A small person just does things in a different way. You find mechanisms and ways of getting over hurdles and what have you. Because that's what they are. They're hurdles. Stand completely on one of the chairs. For someone like me to make a cup of tea. There's so many functions. And actually I'm sorry if I've written a drink. Which, as you can appreciate, I need a drink after doing all that. It's quite tiring. At the age of 49, Michael has spent all of his life adjusting to the big world. We have a shower that's slightly low. Not too much. He may have turned his home into a gigantic gymnasium. But out and about, he's had to face an even bigger set of problems. Fortunately for Michael, modern technology has come to his rescue in the shape of his mobility scooter. But there are some things that even technology can't solve. Everyone wants to reach for the stars. But from the day I was born, I've always been reaching for something. When Michael was born, they just said, Leave him. Don't take him home. Forget I had him. But I had him. And I wasn't going to leave him. Michael was one of a pair of twins. Both his parents unknowingly carried a gene giving either son a 1 in 4 chance of dwarfism. His brother Malcolm grew normally. But Michael wasn't so lucky. When I went to my secondary school at the age of 11 and a half, it really started hitting me, you know, that the kids were already five foot tall when I was still way back at 2 foot 11. The first day, the deputy head saw him. She nearly had a fit because she just couldn't visualise somebody as small as that. I said, as long as the lads used to grab his arms underneath, his feet would go up the stairs cos he had to change rooms. Nothing stopped him. I can honestly say I've never been bullied in my life. Some of the friends used to fight in class to sit next to me, which was quite a nice feeling, really. That's it. Thank you very much. Michael has diastrophic dysplasia, a rare skeletal condition with symptoms that include short limbs and spinal curvature. It means he has feet the size of a one-year-old and tiny three-inch hands that can't be properly clenched. It can also cause degeneration in the joints, meaning the sufferer risks losing mobility with age. Luckily for Michael, his job at the Southampton Customs and Excise Office is entirely desk-bound. Obviously, when you first meet him, it's a surprise. After, like, a few hours in his company, you realise that he's no different to anybody else. Oh, see? I'm just one of the gang, and they don't see me as a little person. Hang on a minute, I might need the chair for this one. You know, and hopefully it's because of my outlook, character and personality. What? That was a party trick. At 2ft 11, Michael may be the UK's shortest man, but he is a long way from the world record. Today, Craig Glenday, the editor of Guinness World Records, is on his way to meet a 19-year-old who claims to be the smallest man in the world. I've arrived here at Heathrow Airport on the first stage of a very long journey, I guess, to find a very small man. I'm about 6,000 miles away, hopefully, in a very small place called Hohot. In Inner Mongolia, there should be a very small man at 2.5ft. And deep in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, eight hours' drive from Hohot city, is the home village of Pingping, the man that Craig will be measuring. When Pingping was born, he wasn't big at all. We just couldn't understand it. He was only half a kilogram. 19-year-old Pingping is a primordial dwarf, meaning his growth retardation started at an early stage in the uterus. He now weighs just 8 kilograms, the same as an average one-year-old. The limbs, head and body have grown in the correct proportions as normal, but the overall effect is of a miniaturised adult. We were spending so much money on medicines to help him grow, but nothing worked. We spent so much, we were living off instant noodles. But in the end, we thought, what's the point? He didn't grow, no matter what we did. It's an incredibly rare condition that affects less than 1 in 10 million people. As well as extreme short stature, its characteristics include a high squeaky voice and the likelihood of deformities in at least some of the joints. Pingping's family live a simple life as farmers, with just a few cattle and chickens. The house has only two rooms, one where the family eat and sleep, and the other, a small kitchen with a simple stove. Basic amenities are scarce. There is electricity, but water has to be collected from a well. The family are desperate for Pingping to get the record, hoping that with fame, fortune will follow, allowing them to escape their life in the village. I really hope my son can go to the outside world. Many people say to us, why not go with your son and then you can eat good food and live in grand buildings? You can leave this place behind and enjoy a rich and happy life. 19-year-old Pingping has hardly ever left home, so his family have asked their son-in-law, Liu De'en, to act as his agent and minder on the trip to meet Craig in Hohot City. I'm excited about the record because it means I can leave home and maybe even fly on a plane and visit some foreign countries. If this record is ratified and he, Pingping, is the world's shortest man, it could change his life, and this time next year he'll probably be world famous. He'll be invited all around the world on TV shows. There'll be limitless options for him, unlike he has now. That's if he measures up. At 3ft 6in, the world's shortest man, the world seems a tough place, and being at the mercy of bullies is just part of growing up. Midget, midget, midget, you're just known as the midget. You have no other identity, so it takes on a very negative connotation. 38-year-old Tanya Lee Davis has diastrophic dysplasia, and back in her hometown in Canada, that made her the butt of all the jokes. There was one instance where I rode my bicycle to school and some boys threw my bicycle on the top of the school, like, on the roof, and, you know, there I was, being pretty much stranded, you might as well just cut my legs off while you're at it, cos I had no way to get around. I think it made me more determined to speak back and have some comebacks, I guess, when boys teased me. I thought in my head, someday this'll come in handy. And it did come in handy. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome on stage the wonderful Tanya Lee Davis! Tanya Lee drew on her experiences for a comedy act which has taken her all over the world. That's right, check out the tits of the 5-year-old! Ouch! I hear gasps from people. They see me waddling up and then crawling up in a chair, sometimes struggling, they're just like, oh my God, why are they, you know, why are you doing this? So I have to disarm them as soon as I get on stage. I understand that most people assume I'm a midget, but you also assume I gotta have midget friends. Like there's packs of us hanging around together. The best comedy comes from pain. I just talk about stuff I know, and I get into some situations in my life, so those are the ones I like to talk about. I got a right to be pissed off about the whole period thing. I can't wear tampons cos I trip over the string. Her edgy act may not be for everyone, but one man was especially impressed. I had belly laughs, she had so much charisma, and she was funny. Marty Heibert, a 47-year-old divorcee, became a regular at her Los Angeles gigs. I thought, oh, nice guy, he gave me a big hug, he's a big fella, and I thought, you know, cool, whatever. She's a force of nature. That's when I thought, well, maybe there's something worth pursuing here. We just hung out, I mean, it was just so like, I think we're dating, cos I didn't spend a weekend without him. Tanya Lee is not traditionally the kind of woman that a man might pursue, but she cared about me, and I cared about her. Over that time period, things grew gradually and worked out very naturally. We went out and had dinner, had a couple glasses of wine, next thing you know, ---- happens, you know. Smoke some pot and end up in a bathtub with dishwashing liquid cos you don't have any bubble bath. That's funny. The couple embarked on a whirlwind romance and, after only a few months, tied the knot. It wasn't long after that Marty began to notice something strange. There were some effects to the height that I was unaware of, you know, hadn't thought of. Like, everywhere we would go, we were stared at, and that took a little bit of getting used to. After a while, the pair forgot about the height difference and, nine years on, the marriage is still going strong. For Britain's smallest man, the quest for love wasn't quite so smooth. At the age of 35, Michael Henbury married another little person, but after three years, the couple went their separate ways. I regret having a failed marriage behind me, but it wasn't a bad split at the end, but it was one of those where the love just wasn't there any more. She loves me, she loves me not. After having no luck on the dating scene, Michael decided he needed to look elsewhere to find his perfect match. I felt at the time that the ladies in England, the relationships, for whatever reason, just weren't working out and I just felt, let's go foreign. So Michael joined an international dating agency and was totally upfront about his stature. Only one woman responded. Joyce Villases from the Philippines didn't seem to mind about his height. I'm just thinking because he's a Catholic and he's a good man, you know, why not? A few months after their first date, Mike decided to pop the question. I just think it over and over and I said, Well, again, when you're not standing up, there's not a huge amount of difference regarding, you know, the sexual side of a relationship. And not everything about me is small. And today the couple will be celebrating eight years of happy marriage. Aha! There we go, my flower. Oh, well, take your time now, don't wash it off. Oh, what is that? A flower? Yay! Oh, thanks, Mike. OK. My pleasure, my love. Thank you. A year after the wedding came another happy event, the birth of their perfectly normal-sized son, Joseph. Now seven years old and four foot tall, he towers above his dad. If I had a crystal ball, I would have loved to have been born an average height with no disability, you know. I normally try and wake up with a smile on my face, look at my son, and that gives me the biggest smile you can imagine. In a few days' time, little people from across the UK will be competing in their own mini Olympics. It's the 2008 Dwarf Athletics Association Games, where the standard ranges from absolute beginners through to world record holders. The most coveted medal of all will be for the 100m sprint, and all eyes will be on one man. 20-year-old Olly Clark. Believe it or not, you never believe it, actually, it's quite amazing looking at me now. I'm actually the fastest little guy in the world, as proven by a world record I got for the 60m in France in 2003. I ran it in 9.39 seconds. If you don't believe me about the record, I've got it up here. Proof of my winning is this trophy and the world record. All spangly and shiny, lovely. When I've got the world record in the 60m, that's the best feeling. It's really satisfying to run against someone with the same abilities and stature and stuff. The fastest little person on the planet may have the 60m record in the bag, but will he be able to step up and shine in the 100m? There's always a chance of getting the record for the 100m, but for me, I'd need to bring my time down by quite a lot, maybe even a second. Stop talking, run tall! Someone who wants to steal Olly's glory is his lifelong friend, 20-year-old Andrew Martin. This is the year for me. I think Olly should be afraid. I think this could be one of the closest races to one of the best races I've ever run. Accelerate. Andrew trains with the big guys to push himself to the absolute limit. Let's go! Over the 100m, a normal-sized sprinter can reach a top speed of 10m per second, compared to Andrew's 7. And with much shorter legs, he will take 75 strides instead of their 40. If Andy beat me, I wouldn't show my face in public. I know I'd run and hide for a while. There are more than 200 types of dwarfism, but Andrew and Olly, both 4'6", have the most common form, achondroplasia, where the limbs are short in comparison to the torso, which is a normal size. There are a few basic characteristics of the achondroplasia condition. Start with the face. You have a longer lower jaw, usually no bridge to the nose. The eyes are wide set apart. There's a larger forehead area. I can't straighten my arm. I don't know how far I've got the head, but I can only put my hands together. Some people can't even manage that, they can just about get their hands there. Often there's a different curve in the back, which leads to the larger behind area. So we're carrying an average-sized torso and average weight on top on smaller legs, so it's a lot more stress on our legs. But in just two days' time, any disability will be forgotten as hundreds of little people get together to socialise and compete. When you're in the average world, you have to look up every time, but when you go to the Games, it's your world and everyone's on your eye level. And it's...it's great. Shopping for clothes when you're only four foot tall can be a challenge. I like this one, but I don't really like the print. Azizahed from Iran is also going to the Games to compete in the swimming events, and today she's looking for something to wear for the all-important final night party. It might not be long enough. No, it's not. I really want to have the right clothes, look my best for the big event. Also, because it might be a chance for me to find my right person, Mr Right. It's a nice dress, but then, as you can see, it's a bit too long, even with high heels, it's still a bit too long. But then it's nice. Having failed to find anything that fits, 25-year-old Azi now has to revert to the children's department. I'm just going to have a look at the kids' section. I might find something that fits well, but then I don't really want to look like a child with a sparkly, pinky dress. One day, I went to a party, and a five-year-old kid was wearing the same dress as me. I didn't really like it. Four years ago, Azi left Iran, where her condition had never been fully accepted. They just don't have the culture to accept people who are different with them. I couldn't socialise with other people. In Iran, I have never seen someone like myself. I didn't really know that there are some other people in this world who were born with the same condition as me. It's why I've decided to leave the country, really. I think it looks really nice. If I could find a high heel and the right exercise, it wouldn't look kiddie at all. I'm really happy with it. Coming to London and meeting other little people has changed Azi's life. Wow, it's lots of people who have the same problem as me. You can't reach cash points, can't reach telephones, and I'm not the only one. It was really amazing. Having got the dress, she now needs high heels to complete the image. But when you're a tiny size one, that's a problem. I'm just looking for your tall and small section for high heels. Wow, that is my size. I just hope that I can dance on them, really. That's a proper party shoes. My first high heel ever. I feel like a grown-up, really. As the sun rises over Hohot City in Inner Mongolia, it's the start of the most important day of 19-year-old Ping Ping's life. Needs to pee. Needs to... Oh, no, no. Burn me alive. Bye-bye. Today, he will find out if he is officially the world's shortest man. I'm very excited. I'm about to meet Ping Ping for the first time, I think at breakfast. I've heard that Ping Ping can be slightly temperamental, a bit moody. I suppose he's a teenager. He knows we're here to make him famous. After today, he'll be world-famous, hopefully, so I'm sure he'll get on fine. Ping Ping? Ping Ping, morning. Morning. We're taking your photograph today, aren't we? Ping Ping. Obviously, I've seen photographs of Ping Ping before, but to actually meet in the flesh, there's that initial reaction you have, which is, oh, my God, this is amazing, and almost unreal. The human spine tends to contract slightly through the day, so Ping Ping will need to be measured three times over ten hours, and the average taken. Craig has organised the sessions to happen in the local state hospital, where a team of doctors will be present to ensure an accurate reading. I think he's beginning to get a sense of what might be ahead of him in terms of fame and people stopping him in the street all the time, so he might as well get used to it, because it's going to happen quite a lot. It's exactly 735 millimetres. It's actually much shorter than I had expected. I'd heard around 75, maybe 74, so that's an interesting sign. With a first result of 2 feet 5 inches, Ping Ping's prospects for the record seem good. And now, with a few hours before the final measurements, there's a chance for him to explore the city. But how will Ping Ping adjust to suddenly being the biggest show in town? From this point of view, it's terrifying to see all these huge bodies surrounding him all the time. You feel very protective towards him, because you worry he's going to trample on him at any moment. If you're not looking carefully, you might just squish him underfoot. To be officially measured and ratified by Guinness will just completely change his life. His family will realise that he may become a bit of a cash cow, but that's what comes with the fame and notoriety of being a Guinness World Record holder. The wind is not helping. 3 foot 6 stand-up comedian Tanya Lee Davis is back home in Las Vegas, where she lives with her husband Marty. One, two, three. Woo-hoo! I'm the king of the world. Marty's the best. I'm treated like an absolute princess, for one thing. He loves me unconditionally. He's extremely patient. Hold on, hold on to me. Repositioning, ready? You know, sometimes I wonder I don't deserve him. I guess it's just nice that you can have somebody in your life that loves you no matter what. Sweet. Oh, wow. But the couple face an uncertain future. 38-year-old Tanya Lee has a spinal condition which is gradually paralysing her. Today she's making a 250-mile trip to LA to meet a surgeon who will attempt to halt the process. Hi, Tanya. Hello. How are you? Dr Michael Kropf is one of America's leading experts in spinal surgery. I feel like things are going downhill. I'm really uncomfortable all the time, sitting, standing. Let me take a look at you. Can you stand up totally for me now? That's about it. Tanya Lee has spinal stenosis, a debilitating arthritic condition common in diastrophic dwarfs. Here, bone deposits compress the spinal cord and trap the nerves that lead into it. Well, Tanya Lee's case is one of the worst I've seen. I have treated probably hundreds of little people over the last 10 to 15 years, and hers is one of the most difficult, complicated that we've seen so far. You've got pretty tremendous degeneration in here. If she doesn't have surgery in the next few months, she most likely is going to be in a wheelchair permanently. So basically what we're going to do is take the rooftop off each individual vertebral body here and open up the spinal column and creating a bigger opening for the spinal cord. That's a lot of levels. Oh, gosh. The worst-case scenario is if the surgery doesn't work, she could be paralyzed. I mean, it's a very risky surgery. Excellent. Oh, it's never easy with my body, I tell you. I don't know. I think I've done pretty well so far, but it always seems like there's something else popping up. Oh, well. Tanya says we should have a will made up, and that's scary. And I guess we should do something like that, but I don't think it's going to come to that. So... OK, I'll see you in a minute. OK, we'll talk to the nurse. See you in a minute. If the case is that she will be paralyzed from the chest down, then that's just something we'll deal with, and we'll get by. We're doing it. Michael Henbury, Britain's shortest man, also has potential health worries, mostly caused by him being overweight. Enjoy, Joseph. Eat your peas and make you big and strong, remember? Like your dad. To have a normal lifespan, Michael, at 2 foot 11, should be consuming only 750 calories a day, a third of an average man's intake. But over the years, he's been getting through double that and has ballooned from four stone to nearly eight. I suppose because of my stature, I should eat more child portions, but I honestly believe it is the lack of movement that I have and mobility that causes the weight problem. Oh, look at that! Oh! Ah! What a shot! I'm a little bit envious that I couldn't do the things that he's doing and the fact I can't participate with my own son in these activities. But, you know, that's life, and I think I'm quite lucky, and there's a lot of people much worse off than I am, you know, so that's life. Ping-Ping's health is also a concern. Primordial dwarves rarely live much past the age of 30, and Ping-Ping isn't exactly helping his situation. He's even insisted that before the final measurements, his brother-in-law should take him to stock up on his favourite brands of cigarettes. Ping-Ping is a heavy smoker, and during this trip he's been getting through up to 30 cigarettes a day. I'm not sure I totally agree with the smoking. I think a third of all cigarettes in the world are smoked in China, and he's doing his bit for that figure. Yeah, we're on 74. I think it was my idea of getting shorter during the day. He's actually got taller. But that's why we do the three measurements, I guess. Over the course of today, we've come up with a total average of 746.1mm, which is a new Guinness World Record. So, congratulations. The world's shortest man is a mere 2ft 5. It's the news the crowd have been waiting to hear. In the beginning, it will be a long, strange road for him, I think. That's what comes with being the world's shortest man. He's a superstar. In just a few hours, Ping-Ping will return to his village as a hero. But if all goes to plan, there's every chance he'll be taking his family back to the big city with him very soon. It's the opening day of the Dwarf Athletics Association Games. Over the next 48 hours, more than 100 little athletes will do battle. The main stars of the show will be Andrew Martin and the fastest little person on the planet, Olly Clark. You just want to do well. You think they're cheering you on, so you want to do well for them. Showing people as well that we mean business. We're not here to muck about. We're here to be serious. It's a serious job. It's a good feeling. It's a buzz, I suppose, just being back. It gives a warm feeling. At the swimming pool, Azzy is moments away from the event she's been training for, the 25 metres breaststroke. I'm very excited and a bit nervous. And my race is the next one. Excited. I found the Dwarf Athletics Association through my friends. It was a new world. It was a new life. That was the first time when I swam with someone who was the same as me. And that was amazing. That was just wow. Age group. Really pleased. As in what I'm training for. I'm good. Excited. I'm feeling really happy. I'm feeling really confident now. And I don't have the depression that I used to have when I came to this country because of the bad experience that I had in my country. Back on the track, it's the men's 100 metres. Andy has been training all year to take Olly's crown. And this could be his moment. Olly's got off to a blistering start, while Andrew's struggling to make up the ground. Olly takes gold, and Andrew silver. You can pull it out on the day. It's a bit gut-wrenching when you've been working hard for so many months and he pulls something out like that. But no, I'm pleased. I'm going good. I've done it in 16.2, which is a bit slow, really, to be honest. I thought I was hoping for a 15. So 16.2 is a bit disappointing. But I'm still the fastest in the world at the 60 metres. I've still got the world record for that. It hasn't been broken, as far as I know. 100 metres. I've got a bit of work to do on that. I've got a couple of seconds to scrub off. But I'm still fastest race times in Britain. In first place, Olly Clarke. Everyone with short stature is facing daily problems against other people's ideas and concepts of them and views of them. So you've got to have a certain amount of pride to be able to just walk on by and ignore it. In second place, Andy Martin. People will say, would you want to be tall? I'm like, well, no, not right now because of his average height. I probably wouldn't even be doing sport right now. You've got my wallet. I need my ID and our medical card. In Los Angeles, it's the day that Marty and Tanya Lee have been dreading. This morning, she will face a six-hour operation to try to halt her paralysis. I'm just kind of trying not to get too emotional about it and keep my head together and just plan on waking up in a couple of hours. I feel like a deer in the headlights. You know this is coming, you know, and right now is the moment's here and it's just like, you know, shock, you know, just... OK. I'm just wiping the glitters. Sleep. OK. All right. All right, love you. Surgery on the little person is complicated by their size. For Tanya Lee, at 3 foot 6, the amount of anaesthetic required is the same dose given to a child. You basically are doing a large-person surgery in a person that is half the size. You know, how much surgery can she get away with? We're going to be watching her neurological status with spinal monitoring throughout the procedure. And if at any time during the case there's any kind of a loss in her spinal function, we'll be able to see that and we'll stop the procedure. I have all the faith in the doctors, but, you know, they're just doctors. So they can do what they can do. If something takes a bad turn, it'll take a bad turn. It's emotionally difficult, but I'm getting by. Tanya Lee's six-hour operation is drawing to a close, and for Marty, the agonising wait will soon be over. She has this positive attitude and something rotten happens to her. She's convinced it's going to turn into something good, and it does. Maybe that's something she's also learned as she's grown up. Maybe this will also turn out well. I hope so. The most nervous time is in the recovery room when you're watching them wake up and make sure they're moving both extremities. I mean, that's when you know you've hit a home run or not. Hi, Marty. Hi, you must be really tired. Oh, it's a long day. Have a seat. Everything's doing well. Tanya's doing great. She's in the recovery room. Really pretty sleepy, but she's moving her toes and everything, so that's good. OK. Terrific. Thanks very much. I'll see you first thing in the morning, OK? OK. Tanya Lee is out of immediate danger, but the next 48 hours will show if the operation has been a success. Try to stand. Do you want me to come over there when she stands? Yeah, actually, you can come over here now. Two days on, and incredibly, Tanya Lee is about to make an attempt at walking. And keep your eyes open, just so I know that you're not dizzy at all. I'm just going to hold on to you, and we have the walker as well. Ooh, perfect. Right over there. Oh, girl! Hop up. Yeah, go again. Excellent. Perfect. Look at her go. OK, let's go back. At least I'm moving, and obviously I've still got feeling in my legs, so that's good. To see her walk as quickly as she did, that was confirmation that the surgery was successful. Congratulations. If the doctors say that she's going to recover in six months, give her three months. She'll be back out there, just to prove them wrong. In Birmingham, it's the end of the Dwarf Athletics weekend and time for the final night disco. It's nice because we don't get hassle from the average world, where you get people stopping and staring and pointing. If you're out sometimes, like in a nightclub or something, you get some attention from average height women, but it's only because they think you're sweet, you're small, you're adorable and all that. You get the old pattern on the head. Any cue... Azzy's got her new dress on and is hoping to meet her Mr Right. My ideal man, to have someone a bit taller than me, then I can just hold their hands naturally and I can dance with them, I can have eye contact and kiss them whenever I want. And the plan seems to be working. Azzy has caught the eye of Stan Coolers from Belgium. She's lovely, she's a nice girl and, to be honest, also quite interesting to talk with. We'll see what happens, we'll see what the future brings. In Las Vegas, Tanya Lee is back at home recuperating and is hoping to be back doing stand-up by the end of the year. With the launch of the latest Guinness World Records book, Ping Ping is about to find out what global fame feels like. But in the meantime, he's enjoying what's likely to be the last bit of calm before the media storm. Michael, who's turning 50 this year, has started a new health regime and is continuing to look on the bright side of life. And there we go. Thank you, son. I'm assuming we've all been put on this Earth once. Me having a chip on my shoulder will be bitter about what I haven't got. Where will it get me in life? I seriously don't think it will get me anywhere. My philosophy is make the most with the hand you're down with, really. And that's the exercise for today. Thank you. And thank you, Joseph.