Greyling’s crowning glory

Lorna Greyling, a wife, mother and business owner, will be the first South African to compete in Mrs Hemisphere.

Greyling is testimony to how having a good heart and being beautiful can be a great combination. She won Mrs Africa Hemisphere in December last year, and one of the criteria was that she had to choose a charity for which she now has to raise money. She chose Dignity Dreams, a non-profit organisation which provides washable sanitary pads for young girls.

In May, she will travel to Atlanta in the US to compete in the Mrs Hemisphere pageant. Should she come out tops, she will go on to compete in the Mrs Universe pageant. Before jetting off to the US, Greyling will have to raise R100 000 for charity, with the focus being humanitarian work.

Greyling spoke of how fulfilling it was to give back to the community, knowing that she was doing something that could sustain her for many years. “I think sometimes people might get too comfortable with the idea that they should constantly be given handouts,” she said. “It’s better to teach someone to do for themselves what they could not do before.”

Dignity Dreams gives people skills to make sanitary pads that can last up to three years, thereby creating small businesses along the way.

She also owns a Melville-based spa, and although she obviously started it to make money, she also empowers underprivileged women by training them. Melville Wellness Centre and Day Spa provides in-house training to underprivileged women who otherwise would never have had the opportunity. “The women who go through the training are given enough skills to open their businesses.”

Greyling has had to overcome several hardships in her life, but none more traumatic than her husband being kidnapped while in Nigeria seven years ago. Throughout the challenges, she never stopped believing in herself. The doting mother of three young girls hopes her daughters will take from her the belief that no dream is too big to be fulfilled.