Love at First Height! Touching Tale of the 7ft 8in Man dubbed

A 7ft 8in tall man so embarrassed by his height he hid at home for 'half his life' has found love with a woman three feet smaller than him.

Joelison Fernandes da Silva, 28, developed gigantism as a child and his rapidly soaring height forced him to drop out of school due to bullying and then refuse to leave the family house for years.

But true happiness eventually found the shy Brazilian - who has come to be known as 'the gentle giant' - in the form of Evem Medeiros, a 5ft 21-year-old woman he met online.

'The first time I saw her it was love at first sight,' Joelison said. 'I was charmed by her. I wanted to be with her all the time. It didn't matter about her size.'

The former gold miner admits their huge height difference has left a few people bewildered, especially when it comes to the dynamics of their love-life.

 

'I get asked a lot about this and at first it annoyed me but nowadays it's normal and I am used to it. I take it in good humour,' explained the real-life Goliath.

Joelison grew up in a small rural village in Paraiba, northern Brazil and was bullied from a young age due to his height.

He got in trouble for fighting his tormentors and later decided to quit school altogether, much to the disappointment of his mother Ivanilde Fernandes da Silva, 45.

She said: 'From a young age I knew there was something not quite right with Joelison. 

'When he was a baby and only a few months old the baby shoes stopped fitting his feet properly and I'd always have to go and buy more and more.

'I thought "there’s something wrong here" but the doctors said he was just a big baby and would stop growing eventually and so we waited for him to stop growing - but he still hasn’t stopped.