GameChanger
USAPA Ambassador
credits pickleball with
transforming her life.
Growing up in Bloemfontein, South Africa,
Mandy Harnoy lived an idyllic childhood.
With loving parents and a competitive
sports outlet in tennis, she dreamt one day
of playing professionally. Talented enough to play in
high school, then collegiately at the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, she recalled her early
years fondly, “I was very loved and cherished,
and grew up with very devoted and
caring parents who encouraged me to
pursue my tennis dreams.”
While a pro tennis career never
materialized, Mandy soon found
happiness in being married and then
with a newborn daughter to care for.
Soon thereafter, though, life changed
dramatically.
“My mom passed away at the very young
age of 60. It was a total shock to me and my
family,” she says. “I was devastated. My mom
and I had always been extremely close, like
best friends. My whole world collapsed. I had
a new baby and it was hard coming to terms
with the fact that my daughter would never
know my mom, and my mom would never
be a part of her life or ours. To deal with the
horrific daily pain I was feeling due to the loss,
I turned to food. Food seemed to take away
the pain momentarily and make everything
feel better. When I constantly ate, the pain was
constantly taken away. It was a vicious cycle.”
By Drew Wathey
Mandy would eventually have three more daughters
and unfortunately never lost all her pregnancy weight
and slowly started to spiral out of control. “The fact that
my mom was missing out on it all, seeing these beautiful
girls, and me as a mom, was devastatingly hard for me to
deal with,” she explains.
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