IT was nothing short of a miracle that the author of Tunnel Vision, Mandy Ivey, who was diagnosed with glaucoma at a tender age and grew up with labels like “the blind gymnast”, was healed at a young age, and has now told that amazing story in a book meant to instil hope in the reader.

At the book launch on Saturday, May 23, at The Junction Kloof, teary-eyed and overwhelmed with emotions, Ivey thanked all the people who contributed to the project she said has been 10 years in the making.

Some, she said, were a constant source of encouragement, “winds beneath our winds as we have written this book”.

Ivey also thanked her husband, Mike, for being in her corner even when the task of penning her story seemed daunting.

“I have an amazing story that needs to be shared,” Ivey told attendees at the launch, as she recalled making headlines as a child and how in her early 20s she felt “testimony fatigue”, which set her to focus on married life and her career.

“I had to let go of labels and that is something you will read about in the book,” said Ivey.

Ivey said being a gymnast as a child, which earned her the label “the blind gymnast” while being partially blind, tunneled her vision, an experience that has made her see that internal vision can be so much more powerful.

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“I could see clearly what I wanted to be. I had a dream of becoming a Springbok gymnast,” said Ivey, who also shared the painful difficulty of schooling while living with her diagnosis.

One of the chapters in the book, Ivey said, was a “pivoting point” when she heard an “inner voice” telling her about her “miracle healing”.

“So, guys, you can imagine when something like this happens to you, you want to tell everybody and anybody because you’ve entered a new world,” said Ivey, who explained that she had lived with the condition of partial blindness from an early age until she was about 12 or 13 years old.

“In Tunnel Vision we engage how you can find your story, rekindle what you’ve lost, we talk about wonder loss and wonder find,” said Ivey.

The “simple” yet “complex” and “mysterious” story, said Ivey, brings hope, braces tough questions, and calls for sober, thoughtful contemplation.

“I really believe this book is going to be such an encouragement and blessing to you because it is a book about hope and healing and when you can see the world differently, you see a whole new world,” said Ivey.

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