 Biography
Natascha Dharshani Hoefhamer is born on November 14th, 1982 and lives at the moment in South-Limburg.Therefore she lived more than 10 years in the French-speaking part of Belgium, thus actually grew up bilingual.
Her parents always encouraged sport. Dancing, Swimming, to play Tennis and Hockey were the most favourite sports of Natascha.
In 1995 she joined the hockey club in Cadier en Keer. After she moved she started at the hockey club in Geleen. In early 1998 everything went well. Her hockey career was growing. She played together with Maartje Paumen and early 1999 she almost promoted to the A1 Class.
End of hockey career
But on November 11th, 1998, everything turned into an illusion. During training she sprained her foot and after more than a month they observed Posttraumatic Dystrophy. As a result of this her hockey career was destroyed. She was also forced to make another career for working, because she always wanted to do something in the healthcare, but everybody discouraged her immediately, because of the physical hard work.
Her Posttraumatic Dystrophy has ensured that she started wheelchair tennis in 2002. She had always said to herself: “If I can’t play hockey anymore I will play tennis”, but playing in a wheelchair she had never thought about. In Hendriks Gym she started her very first wheelchair tennis training at her former coach Martin Wiertz. After 3 months she already could play together with the men. She really enjoyed to sport again and had more social contacts with other rollers.
Prosperous wheelchair training
In 2006 Natascha met the National coach Aaad Zwaan. She was delighted to get training by him, but because it was financially not feasible, she must delay this for several years. She waited for the right moment to arrive and on October, the 26th, 2008, her very first training started in Renkum.
"Attention Design"
In daily life Natascha is working as a graphic designer. The name of her company is ‘Attention Design’.
Besides wheelchair tennis is her biggest passion, she has various hobbies like: swimming, photography, watching Formula 1 racing, eating out, and going to the movies, go shopping with friends, cooking and writing of poems.
Her ultimate dream is to join the world top of wheelchair tennis. This sport means everything to her. Besides this she wants to support help for the disadvantaged young people with a restriction who can follow wheelchair training at the Tennis Academy in Sri Lanka. In our Wheels for Life Foundation these two ideals come together.
Posttraumatic Dystrophy(PD)
Posttraumatic Dystrophy (PD) is a complication arising after an injury or surgery on an arm or leg. The severity is independent of the severity of the injury. Thus, a minor injury can have serious consequences, while a serious injury may have not such an impact. PD is one of the main causes of functional decline and disability by accidents or surgery. All tissues and functions can thus be affected. There maybe arise severe disability and pain which is hard to treat. This can bring you in a civil and social isolation. |
