He might only be slightly taller than a glass bottle, but Junrey Balawing is set to break big world records.
The tiny teenager will soon be crowned the world's smallest man, standing at a mere 22 inches.
The minuscule man from Zamboanga del Norte, in the Philippines, is already 17 years old but is just the same size as a one-year-old.
And when he celebrates his 18th birthday in June he is excepted to shave five inches of the current Guinness World Record.
He struggles to walk and can't stand for long, but he looks forward to wearing the crown with pride.
'If I were the smallest man in the world, it would be very cool,' he said.
His mother, Concepcion, 35, says she noticed something was wrong as Junrey approached the age of two but no doctor was able to help.
'He was always sick and we noticed he wasn't growing so we took him to see a doctor but they were baffled,' she says.
When Junrey was 12 the family took him back to the doctor but their only advice was to take more vitamins, which the family couldn't afford.
The family live in a very remote part of the Philippines, the nearest town is an hour away and they're 570 miles from Manila.
Junrey's father Reynaldo, 37, works as a blacksmith in the town centre and is only home at weekends because of travel difficulties.
And while Junrey's younger but taller siblings, Jaycel, 13, Jay-art, 11 and Jeanritch, six, go to school, he stays at home all day with his mother.
Concepcion said: 'I would love to be able to work while my other children are at school but I can't leave Junrey. He needs my care every minute of every day.
'Junrey can only walk with some help and he can't stand for too long because he's in too much pain. But he loves it when I tell him he's the smallest man in the world, he just smiles with pride.'
Based on the Guinness Book of Records, the current smallest man in the world is 24-year-old Niqo Hernandez of Colombia, standing at 27 inches.
No comments:
Post a Comment