Hajnal Ban, 31, a councilor with Logan city council in Queensland, became three inches taller because she was worried her 5ft1in height would damage her credibility as she entered the legal profession and later went into politics. 

She paid the Ilizarov orthopedic clinic in Kurgan, Russia, the equivalent of $37,806 to break both legs in four places and stretch them every day for nine months. 

VIEW ALL

Ban had the surgery when she was a 23-year-old barrister but Australian media only latched on to her medical history this week.

She doesn’t want to be remembered as “the girl who got her legs lengthened”.