Ray Lowrie 43 years old, married to his wife Christine for 24 years and they have two children Joshua and Harrison aged 20 and 24 respectively. They live in Honiton Devon with their family pet Labrador Miss Poppy.

A former Royal Marines Commando of 17 years service often kept fit and active on a rowing machine and enjoyed indoor rowing competitions too.

In 2008 sustained a fracture dislocation to his left leg that was the start of the end of his military career, over a period of 6 years he had 11 corrective surgeries to repair the ankle but each left him in pain with physical restrictions, after many discussions with medical experts Ray decided to elect for an amputation of his left leg below the knee, this would remove the pain and restriction but leave him with a new challenge to overcome.

In June 2013 only 4 weeks post-surgery Ray started physical rehabilitation in Surrey and was fitted for a prosthetic leg, he was focused on overcoming this restriction and wanted to show friends, family and work colleagues he had made the right decision and put every effort into recovering and regaining his fitness.

In September 2013 he attended an adaptive sports talent identification event with Sport England, it was noticed here he had raw talent and was invited to trial for Team GB Rowing and start training at Marlow Rowing Club. After qualifying through 2 rounds of trials he was accepted into the British Rowing Development Pathway and was expected to make large gains with focused training. Ray was no longer rehabilitating in Surrey therefore training at Marlow became unworkable and he was directed towards his local rowing club in Exeter in order to progress.

Ray was nominated by the British Paralympic Rowing Lead Coach Tom Dyson to be part of the Paralympic Inspiration Programme who was sent out to Sochi Russia for the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympic Games. The aim was to be inspired by the athletes, to take in the whole ore of the Paralympics and the hype around a games in order to completely focus on his rowing if he was successful in reaching the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.

When he returned, he trained daily with Stuart Redden at Exeter Rowing Club in single sculls, quads and eights he competed over the summer at the Exeter, Falmouth, Torquay and Dartmouth regattas as an abled bodied athlete.

As a member of the Armed Forces, he also competed at the London 2014 Invictus Games in the indoor rowing event and successfully won 1 Gold and 2 Silver medals against 13 nations.

The Invictus Games UK Team received a 2014 Pride of Britain Award and also received a Sports Personality award The Helen Rollason Award for their inspirational performance during the games and Ray was also shortlisted for a Pride of Exeter Award and came runner up.

Since the Invictus Games Ray has decided to step down from the British Rowing Development Pathway and no longer pursues the Paralympics as his goal, he has enjoyed the time training, competing and challenging his body to its limits but feels he can no longer justify all the time training and competing away from home, he now wants to spend more quality family time with his wife and two sons and feels he is best placed inspiring athletes of the future towards their goals by coaching young children from the age of 12 through the Learn to Row Programme.

Now a few more years on Ray’s children are grown up at the age of 20 and 24 he has continued to keep physically fit and has challenged and broken countless world records for indoor rowing and ski erg, although he no longer pushes himself to absolute breaking point he still keeps fit and now enjoys charity fundraising and likes to help inspire others showing them that despite his injuries and disabilities he has managed to find something he can excel at against the odds and achieve great things. Ray often says “Disability doesn’t have to be disabling” and likes to show that with a can do attitude everyone is capable and able to achieve greatness and achieve something amazing.