Sailor returns to Canada for Invictus Games five years on from life-threatening experience

Despite the trauma of that experience, the 27-year-old sailor will return to Canada to take part in the Invictus Games in February, where she will compete as part of the 19-strong New Zealand Team.

In 2019, while Te Kaha was in Canada for the Frigate System Upgrade, LLSS Gray had been unwell, losing weight and thought she was just recovering from a stomach bug but little did she know that she would be given a five percent chance to live.

“I was admitted to Victoria General Hospital, and was completely bed-bound in the most excruciating abdominal pain.

“I was on a nasal feeding tube for the seven-week duration of my hospital stay and was having test after test with no end in sight, and no clear diagnosis.”

After a variety of tests, doctors performed emergency surgery and what they found was unexpected.

“Once I was on the operating table they could see that my body had attacked my large and small intestines, which were no longer functioning.

“They removed my large intestine completely and a large portion of my small intestine. Following surgery I had some horrible post-surgery complications, so the recovery wasn’t the easiest journey.”

LLSS Gray was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease – Ulcerative Colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation in the digestive tract.

“It had sat dormant my entire life. Most people can suffer their whole life without it ever reaching the point that it did for me.”

When she was well enough, LLSS Gray was flown home to New Zealand where she had two more major reconstructive abdominal surgeries and spent time recovering, working and learning to lead a new life.

Her autoimmune disease has changed the way she lives her life, for the better.

“I was told that I had a less than five percent chance of waking up from surgery, which is something no one ever wants to hear.

“I was in another country, half way around the world from my family and I suddenly realised there was so much in life I hadn’t done. Getting sick has given me a whole new viewpoint on life because we really do only have one.

“I don’t want to put things off, and I don’t shy away from opportunities anymore. I also realised that my body is a lot stronger than I thought, so I now find new ways to constantly challenge my body to see what I can do.”

Her family have been the driving force in her recovery – the support has been second to none.

“My dad is my best friend, and the support of him and my step mum during my recovery has been amazing. They couldn’t have been better support if they tried.

“My step mum got me up everyday in hospital for a shower, dressed me, brushed my hair and did whatever a mum would do – she helped me regain a bit of dignity.

“Dad would watch movies with me, push me around in a wheelchair to go outside to get some sun everyday.

“I always felt supported and loved, ultimately both of them have always made me feel that no matter what they complication is or what the issue is with my illness that I will always be okay.”

The support from her colleagues while in hospital in Canada was something she will never forget.

“The team would come and visit me daily, bring be a new balloon for my hospital bed, keep me company, advocate for me while I was on multiple medications and most importantly, they made me feel less alone while being so sick away from my family.

“They really went out of their way and got me through quite honestly the hardest point in my life, and I can’t thank them enough.”

The 2025 Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler are the first hybrid winter games, providing a global platform to expand the range and profile of winter adaptive sport.

She said she applied for Invictus as she wanted to challenge herself in a way that she hadn’t before, and to push herself out of her comfort zone.

“I have always been a bit of an outsider, and never really felt like I fit in a team. I wanted to do something that would challenge me both mentally and physically.

“The Games are in Canada too and I saw this as an opportunity to take my emotions and leave it all out on the competition floor – or leave it on the mountain as I come down and finally close the book of where my illness started, or at least a chapter of it,” LLSS Gray said.

She said when she went to selection camp she felt alone in her illness, but that has quickly changed.

“To have a met a group do people who, who coming from all walks of life, with different stories and in various stages of healing, I have felt for the first time since 2019 a place that I truly belong.

Invictus has given me an extra family, a sense of belonging, and shown me that no matter what we are all going through, at any stage, we are all somewhere that we belong.

She will compete in snowboarding, rowing, swimming and wheelchair curling at the Games.

LLSS Gray said her goals for the Games was to just get up and compete.

“I’d love to win a gold medal, but gold for me is honestly just making it to the Games and competing because this is already so far outside my comfort zone that for me it is a major achievement.

“I am hoping to display the essence of the Games. I am wanting to make my friends and family proud, my new found Invictus family proud, but ultimately I am wanting to prove to myself that I am capable of anything, and that there are no barriers in life.”