The Smallest People In The World | Our Life

[Music] if i was trying to be small it was a good thing to be the actual smallest and not just being a small person so um personally i wish i had picked on someone else michael henbury is officially britain's shortest man at a mere 2 foot 11 he's the same height as the average three-year-old child [Music] everyone seems quite fit to me and for me to rest my feet i have to um have a run up onto the setting and uh sit there mrs 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 they're hurdles you know one of the chairs for someone like me to make a cup of tea there's so many functions and actually i'm sorry and i drank which um as you can appreciate i 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 nightly you know and 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 [Music] 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 [Music] everyone wants to reach for the but from stars day i was born i've always been reaching for something [Music] 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 one in four chance of dwarfism his brother malcolm grew normally but michael wasn't so lucky when i went to my secondary school um at the age of 11 and a half that it really started hitting me you know that the kids were sort of like already five foot tall when i was still way back at two to five eleven the first day the deputy head saw him she nearly had a fit because she just couldn't visualize somebody as small as that i said all as long as the lads used to grab his arms underneath and his feet would go up the stairs because he had to change rooms nothing stopped him no i honestly say i've never been bullied in my life so some of the friends use the fighting cluster 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 you know a few hours in his company you realize that uh 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 i might need a chair for this one you know and hopefully it's because of my my outlook character and personality [Laughter] at two foot eleven michael may be the uk's shortest man but he is a long way from the world record today craig glenda 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 um about six thousand miles away hopefully in a very small place called ho hot and then in mongolia there should be a very small amount of two and a half foot and deep in the grasslands of inner mongolia eight hours drive from hohot city is the home village of ping ping the man that craig will be measuring he wasn't big at all we just couldn't understand it he was only half a [Music] kilogram 19 year old ping ping is a primordial dwarf meaning his growth retardation started at an early stage in the uterus he now weighs just eight 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 miniaturized 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 ping ping'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 [Music] the family are desperate for ping ping 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 ping ping has hardly ever left home so his family have asked their son-in-law lyuda n to act as his agent and minder on the trip to meet craig in ho hot 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 [Music] if this record is ratified and he ping ping is the world's shortest man it could change his life and this time next year he'll probably be world famous and he'll be invited all around the world on tv shows um there'll be limitless options for him unlike he has now that's if he messes up at three foot six the world seems a tough place and being at the mercy of bullies is just part of growing up [Music] ninja [ __ ] [ __ ] you're just known as the [ __ ] 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 you know you're pretty much stranded you might as well just cut my legs off while you're at it because 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 will come in handy and it did come in handy tanya lee drew on her experiences for a comedy act which has taken her all over the [Applause] [Music] right check out the world of the five-year-old [Applause] 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 um so i have to disarm them as soon as i get on stage i understand that most people assume i'm a [ __ ] but you also assume i gotta have minted friends the best comedy comes from pain just talk about stuff i know and i'd get into some situations in my life so those are the ones i like to talk about hey i got a right to be pissed off about the whole period thing i can't wear tampons because 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 i was a nice guy and gave a big hug and you know he's a big fella and i thought you know cool whatever i mean she's a force of nature um that's that's when i thought well maybe there's something something worth pursuing here we just hung out i mean it was just so like i think we're dating because i didn't spend a weekend without him [Music] 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 to you know [ __ ] happens you know and smoke some pot and end up in a bathtub with dishwashing liquid because 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 we 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 [Music] [Applause] 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 when we quit having a failed marriage behind me um but it wasn't a bad split at the end but it was one of those where um the love just wasn't there anymore she loves me she loves me 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 that that's going forward so michael joined an international dating agency and was totally upfront about his stature only one woman responded joyce velazis from the philippines didn't seem to mind about his height i just thinking because he's a catholic and he's a good man and 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 yeah i think i never meet a man like this well again when you're not standing up um there's not a huge amount of difference regarding the you know the sectional side of a relationship and not everything about me is small and today the couple will be celebrating eight years of happy marriage the little token of my love i bought you a little present [Music] oh thanks mike yeah okay oh my pleasure thank you [Music] a year after the wedding came another happy event the birth of their perfectly normal-sized son joseph [Music] now seven years old and four foot tall he towers above his dad [Music] well done jose really the new one um carlos do you like our car tonight oh yeah carrots good for your eyes is there anything that makes you makes you cry huh if i had a crystal ball i would have not been born a normal 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 a bit of a bigger smile you can imagine [Music] 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 100 meters sprint and all eyes will be on one man [Music] twenty-year-old ollie clark believe it or not you never never believe it actually it's quite quite amazing looking at me now i'm actually the fastest little guy in the world as proven by world record i got for these 60 meters in france in 2003. so it's not bad running in 9.39 seconds if you don't believe me at the record i've got it up here proof of my my winning is this trophy and the world record all spangly and shiny lovely [Music] when i got the world record in the 60s that's that's the best feeling it's really satisfying to run against someone's same abilities and stature and stuff [Music] the fastest little person on the planet may have the 60 meters record in the back but will he be able to step up and shine in the 100 there's always a chance of getting the record for the 100 meters but for me i'd need to bring my time down by quite a lot maybe even a second someone who wants to steal ollie'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 racist or one of the best races i've ever run right andrew trains with the big guys to push himself to the absolute limit let's go over the 100 meters a normal sized sprinter can reach a top speed of 10 meters per second compared to andrew's seven and with much shorter legs he will take 75 strides instead of their 40. they've only beat me i won't show my face in public i just i know i'd run and hide for a while there are more than 200 types of dwarfism but andrew and ollie both four foot six 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 that you have um a longer lower jaw usually um no bridge to the nose the eye is a wide set apart there's a larger forehead area so i can't straighten my arm that's one thing average person is reached i know how far above the head but i can only just put my hands together and some people i know can't even manage that they can just about get their hands there often there's a there's different curve in the back which which leads to the larger behind area so we're carrying an average size towards an 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 socialize and compete when you're in the average world you have to look up every time but when you go to like the games it's like it's your world and everyone's on your eye level and it's it's it's great shopping for clothes when you're only four foot tall can be a challenge i like this one but don't really like the prince aziz ahead 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'll still be too long but then it's nice having failed to find anything that fits 25 year old azzy now has to revert to the children's department i'm just going to have a look at kit section i might find something that fits well but then i don't really want to look like as 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 as he 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 socialize with other people in iran i have never seen someone like myself [Music] and didn't really know that there are some other people in this world was born with the same condition as me seven [Music] it's why i've decided to leave the country early i think it really looks really nice if i could find a high heel and the right exercise it wouldn't look kiddy at all i'm really happy with it coming to london and meeting other little people has changed as his life wow it's lots of people who have the same problem as me he 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 um tall and small section for high hills wow that is my size i just hope that they can dance on them really that's a proper part issues my first high heel ever feel like you've grown up really as the sun rises over ho hot city in inner mongolia it's the start of the most important day of 19 year old ping ping's [Music] today he will find out if he is officially the world's shortest man which i'm excited about to meet hipping ping for the first time i think at breakfast i've heard that he thinking can be slightly temperamental a bit moody i suppose he's a teenager what he knows we're here to make him famous after today he'll be world famous hopefully so i'm sure you've got one fine pink pain morning morning we're taking your photographs today obviously i've seen photographs of a pink thing before but it's actually made 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 organized the sessions to happen in the local state hospital where a team of doctors will be present to ensure an accurate reading [Music] i think he's 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 you might as well get used to it because it's going to happen quite a lot so it's exactly 735 millimeters actually much shorter than i had expected um i'd had around 75 maybe 74 so that's an interesting sign with the first result of two feet five 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 at this point it was terrifying to see all these kind of huge bodies surrounding him all the time he feels very protective towards him because he's worried he's going to just trample on him at any moment and if you're not looking carefully you might just squish him under the foot [Music] to be officially measured and notified by guinness will just completely change his life each family will realize that you may become a bit of a cash cow and that's what comes with the fame and no sorry being a guinness world record the wind is not helping three foot six stand-up comedienne tony lee davis is back home in las vegas where she lives with her husband marty 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 paralyzing her today she's making a 250 mile trip to la to meet a surgeon who will attempt to halt the process dr michael croft 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 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 tony 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 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 and 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 it's a very risky surgery your incision is going to go from here down to the top of your pants 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 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 okay all right see you okay we'll talk to the nurse see you in a minute if the case is that you will be paralyzed from the chest down then that's just something we'll deal with and uh we'll get by we're doing it britain's shortest man also has potential health worries mostly caused by him being overweight enjoy joseph eat your pains i might hear big and strong remember what why 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 one shot 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 settlements activities um but you know it's um that's life and um i think i'm quite lucky you know there's a lot of people much worse off than i am you know so that's nice 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 [Music] he's even insisted that before the final measurements his brother-in-law should take him to stock up on his favorite 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 um he's doing respect for that figure yeah we're on 74. um so it was my thing you're getting shorter during the day you've actually got taller but that's why we do the three measurements i over the guess of today we've come up with a total average of 746.1 millimeters which is a new guinness world record so congratulations the world's shortest man is a mere two-foot-five it's the news the crowd have been waiting to hear the beginning of it will be a long kind of strange road for him i think um 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 [Music] it's the opening day of the dwarf athletics association games over the next 48 hours more than 100 little athletes [Applause] the main stars of the show will be andrew martin and the fastest little person on the planet ollie clark you just want to do well because they think they're cheering they're cheering you on so you want to do well for them 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 so yeah it's a good feeling it's a it's a buzz i suppose it's just being back it's a warm feeling [Applause] [Music] at the swimming pool azzy is moments away from the event she's been training for the 25 meters breaststroke i'm very excited and a bit nervous and my race is the next one so excited i found so fascinating association through my friends it was a new world it was it was a new life that was the first time when i swam with someone who was same as me and that was amazing that was just wow [Applause] [Applause] i'm feeling really happy i'm feeling really confident now and i don't have the depression that i used to have but 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 meters andy has been training all year to take ollie's crown and this could be his moments set [Music] ollie's got off to a blistering start while andrew's struggling to make up the ground ollie takes gold and andrew's silver you can pull it out on the day it's a bit gut-wrenching when you you've been working hard for so many months and he pulled something out like that but no i'm i'm pleased i'm going i'm going good i've done it in 16.2 which is um 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 fastest in the world at the uh the 60 meters still the world record for that hasn't been broken as far as i know and 100 meters got a bit of work to do on that got a couple seconds to scrub off but i'm still fastest race times in britain in first place everyone's short status is facing daily problems against other people's ideas and concepts other than the views of them so you've got the same amount of pride to be able to just walk on by and ignore it [Music] people say would you want to be tall and like well no not right now because i was every time i probably wouldn't even be doing sport right now [Music] um my 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 hours so i feel like a deer in the headlights you know you you uh you know this is coming you know and right now it's the moment's here and it's just like you know shock you know you just [Music] okay and i'm just wiping the glitters okay all right surgery on a little person is complicated by their size for tanya lee at three foot six 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 now they're just doctors so they can do what they can do if something takes a bad turn it'll take a bad term it's emotionally difficult but uh but uh i'm getting by [Music] in l.a tanya lee's six-hour operation is drawing to a close and for marty the agonizing 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 that she's grown up maybe maybe this will also turn out well i hope so you can wrap it up the most nervous time is in the recovery room when you're watching them wake up and make sure they're moving you know both extremities i mean that's 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 thanks um everything's well doing well tanya's doing great um she's in a recovery room um really pretty sleepy but she's moving your toes and everything so that's good okay okay terrific yeah thanks very much thank you i'll see you first thing in the morning okay okay tanya lee is out of immediate danger but the next 48 hours will show if the operation has been a success [Music] try to stand do you want me to come over there when she stands yeah actually you can come over here now yeah 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 oh perfect oh yeah go again excellent perfect look at her go okay okay 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 a confirmation that the surgery was successful congratulations if the doctors say that she's going to recover in six months give her give her three months she'll she'll be back out there just just to prove them wrong [Music] in birmingham it's the end of the dwarf athletics weekend and time for the final night disco [Music] it's nice because we don't get a hassle from the average world where you get people stopping and staring and pointing and if you're out sometimes they're like in a nightclub or something you get some attention from average height women but it's only because they think you're like you're sweet you're sweet you're small you're adorable and all that and it's never patting on the as he'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 as he has caught the eye of stan curlers from belgium [Music] she's lovely she's a nice girl and uh to be honest also quite interesting to talk with we'll see what happens we'll see what the future brings thank you [Music] 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 [Music] 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 [Music] michael who's turning 50 this year has started a new health regime and is continuing to look on the bright side of life eight nine and there we go 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 the where would it get me in life i seriously don't think it would get me anywhere and my philosophies make the most with her and i handed out with really and that's the exercise for today thank you and thank you joseph [Music] do [Music] you

Channel: Our Life

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Keywords: our life, documentary, world documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, history, small people, smallest people, world's smallest people, smallest people in the world, dwarf, dwarfism, dwarfs, dwarves, short people, shortest people, guinness world records

Id: ZawRRQMituE

Length: 44min 49sec (2689 seconds)

Published: Wed May 26 2021