When he was a teenager many doubted he would live to 30 and each year was a bonus.

His birthday will mark a milestone for the man born with acromegaly, also known as gigantism, who weighed 101 kilograms (16 stone) and was 208 centimetres (six foot 10 inches tall) at the age of 15.

His party will start early on Saturday and is likely to have an extended run with three musical acts for friends and associates around his home by the Fitzroy River, east of Portland.

From boyhood he was known as Big Mal and still proudly acknowledges the nickname today.

“I’m one of the longest surviving acromegaly people in the world,” he told The Standard.

“Most people’s pituitary gland is the size of a pea, mine is the size of a golf ball.

“When I was in grade 6 I was as tall as the teacher.

“I took pills to stop growing.”

Rather than shrink into self-pity he grabbed life’s opportunities as they came.

After leaving school he worked as a bouncer at the former Tatts and Lady Bay hotels in Warrnambool plus stints in Melbourne and Sydney as a bodyguard for escorts.

He was also sought after for big-man roles in movies and television series, appearing in Neighbours, Correlli with Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, Fast Forward where he rode a Harley-Davidson down the Swanston Street footpath with Magda Szubanski as pillion, plus appearances in Jonas and The Man from Snowy River.

Agencies also picked him up for advertisements for Ford and Kmart.

In his younger days he was also offered places in basketball teams and world championship wrestling, which he declined.

Nowadays he is a regular presenter and board member of Portland community radio station 3RPC-FM and ticket seller at local bingo.

His weight, which has ballooned to 170 kilograms, gives him almost constant aches and pain, which he subdues with a long-time marijuana habit.

He applauded Premier Daniel Andrews for promising to look at allowing the drug for approved medicinal use.

“It’s stupid the way they persecute people for using marijuana for pain,” he said.

“The government seems to be going in the right direction on this.”