Özlem Kaymaz

She was born in 1974 in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul. She began her education at Bahariye Primary School. Between 1984 and 1987, Özlem Kaymaz set countless Turkish records and won championships as a national swimmer for Galatasaray Sports Club, and when she stepped onto the podium she also began to attract attention with her beauty. At just 14, she became the first Turkish girl on the cover of Marie Claire magazine. From 1989 to 1991 she continued her sporting success as a national windsurfer at the Istanbul Sailing Club. In 1990 she became the first Turkish female athlete to go to the World Windsurfing Championship. After ending her professional sports career, with the support of those close to her she entered the ‘Miss Turkey’ beauty pageant, was crowned Miss Turkey 1992, and then represented Turkey at the Miss World pageant. During her years abroad, while raising her children, Özlem Kaymaz also invested in herself, developing her knowledge of child health, psychology and development, pedagogy, healthy living, art history and world cuisine. Daniel, born with Nager syndrome, spent the first year of his life in the Intensive Care Unit of AMC University Hospital in the Netherlands. Özlem Kaymaz, who lived in New York from 2007 to 2009 for her son’s surgeries, continues to work so that Daniel’s story can serve as a guide for children born with similar syndromes and their families. The foreign languages she speaks: English, Italian, Dutch