Hussain Bisad, who has had health problems, says government should do more for people with physical or mental illness

When Hussain Bisad first settled in north London as an asylum seeker after fleeing from war in Somalia 23 years ago, he did so in the hope of a new and more settled life. Little did he know that shortly after arriving he would be at the centre of the media spotlight, not for his story of escaping conflict but for something altogether different: his height.

Bisad had been in the UK for five months when Guinness World Records measured his height as 2.3 metres (7ft 6.5in), making him then the world’s tallest living man.