Written by Mandy Ivey
Article and book review originally featured in the October issue of JOY! Magazine
On 23 May 2026, I stood in front of more than 200 people in Kloof, Durban, to launch Tunnel Vision, a book I co-authored with my husband, Mike. It was a deeply significant moment for me because I was once nearly blind, yet now I see. Seeing has truly changed the game for me, and it can for you too.
A story of miraculous healing
I have a beautiful story to share, one saturated in God’s miraculous power, grace, healing, and renewal. It’s a story of how what once seemed impossible became possible. I was born in Springs on
24 May 1970, into a home rich in faith and love. I had a mop of thick black hair and beautiful big eyes. My parents soon began to notice that my eyes watered constantly and became agitated in light. When I was a year old, I was diagnosed with congenital glaucoma, and my parents were told I could be blind by age three. I underwent emergency surgery to relieve the pressure in my eyes, and many other procedures followed as the extent of my condition emerged. My glaucoma was advanced, bringing with it tunnel vision, astigmatism, and colour blindness.
A dream beyond my limitations
Despite these challenges, I fell in love with the beautiful sport of gymnastics, which brought me joy and a different sort of vision: the dream of becoming a Springbok gymnast. Competing as a fully sighted athlete, I earned my provincial colours and became an elite gymnast, taking part in the South African Gymnastics Championships. Some newspaper articles referred to me as the “blind gymnast”. In 1981, my parents were advised to remove me from mainstream schooling, and I moved to Prinshof School for the Blind and Partially Sighted in Pretoria.
The night everything changed
Around that time, I started attending a Christian fellowship on Saturday nights in Springs. Known as the Coffee Bar at the White House, it was a beautiful place of worship, connection, and belonging for many young people. On 7 August 1982, everything changed. I went up for prayer and experienced the saturating presence of God and His healing power on my eyes. As people prayed for me, I literally saw my tunnel open up and fade away. Not only could I see clearly, but I experienced bright colours like purple and yellow for the very first time.
Doctors were speechless
My healing attracted significant attention. I appeared in newspapers and on national TV, with doctors unable to explain how I could see. The only explanation given was that “there must be a higher being who really cares for Mandy”.
Learning to live with sight
The years that followed were amazing, and I shared my testimony from a place of wonder and awe. Yet healing brought its own challenges. I had to learn how to renavigate life with full vision. As a fully sighted person, I was expected to catch up educationally, yet I felt like I had missed the starting gun of a race. For years, I had only been able to see a small part of a page, and now I saw so many words in front of me that reading became a source of huge anxiety – one I avoided at all costs.
When the miracle became difficult to share
As time passed, another challenge emerged: testimony fatigue. Being known as the “miracle girl” placed expectations on me and brought up difficult questions like why I was healed and not others. Gradually, I began sharing less. Although I never lost my gratitude, I did lose my ease. Over time, I let the story fade into the background. I unknowingly developed a different kind of tunnel vision, one that included the tunnel vision of imbalance, comfort, and forgetfulness.
Remembering my story
In 2016, while sitting at a traffic light in Cape Town, I heard a deep, unmistakable inner whisper: “Mandy, you have forgotten who you are. You have forgotten your story.” By the next traffic light, I knew exactly what God wanted me to do. I was going to write a book called Tunnel Vision.
When God opened my eyes again
Although the calling to write was clear, self-doubt, fear, and feelings of inadequacy clouded my vision. Yet slowly, God’s grace melted those limitations. Over the next ten years, God did a wonderful healing work within me. A new understanding emerged that tunnel vision is not only a physical condition, but a pervasive inner one too. No wonder Paul, when praying for the Ephesians, said, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened…”
Fully alive and in awe
Standing on that stage on 23 May 2026 was therefore miraculous in many ways. It was a celebration of physical healing and inner healing. It was a reminder that God not only restores our eyesight but also our perspective and purpose. And finally, unbeknown to most of the audience, it was another miracle in itself. Here I was in public, reading out loud… nervous yet confident, shaking yet fully alive. In wonder and awe.
BOOK REVIEW JOY! MAGAZINE OCTOBER ISSUE
When Mandy Ivey was born with congenital glaucoma, doctors warned that she could be blind by the age of three. Years of operations, limited sight, and colour blindness followed, yet Mandy refused to let those limitations define her. She became a competitive gymnast and, at 12, experienced a remarkable healing that doctors could not explain. Co-authored with her husband, Mike, Tunnel Vision tells that extraordinary story, but it also explores what came afterwards – learning to live with full sight, the labels Mandy had carried, the questions her testimony raised, and the realisation that tunnel vision can affect far more than our physical eyes.
Seeing beyond what limits us
Blending memoir, original newspaper articles, and reflection, Tunnel Vision looks at the emotional, mental, and spiritual ways our perspective can narrow. Mandy writes honestly about identity, resilience, faith, healing, and moving beyond old ways of seeing. She also shares how, after years of “testimony fatigue”, she found her way back to her own story and began to understand it differently.
A story of hope and perspective
Tunnel Vision is not just a record of something remarkable that happened decades ago. It invites readers to examine how they see their own lives today. Mandy and Mike encourage us to recognise the fears, habits, assumptions, and limitations that can shape us. This book offers a hopeful reminder that seeing really can change the game.
This article appears in the October 2026 issue of JOY! Magazine. Read the digital version of this magazine here: joygifts.co.za
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Date published: 19/09/2026
Feature image: Sourced from original article published in the October issue of JOY! Magazine
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