Emotional week ahead at ‘life-changing’ Invictus Games – Team UK captain

The Invictus Games Team UK captain has said there could be an emotional week ahead as the group travel to The Hague to take part in the competition.

The team will be joined in the Netherlands by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for the event, which is taking place from April 16-22 after being delayed by the pandemic.

Harry founded the Invictus Games to aid the rehabilitation of injured or sick military personnel and veterans from across the globe, by giving them the challenge of competing in sporting events similar to the Paralympics.

Team UK captain Rachel Williamson, 33, from Rutland in the East Midlands, said the games “really can change people’s lives”.

She told the PA news agency: “It’s done exactly that for me. And I think probably part of my responsibilities is just to make sure people have that awareness of what could happen or will happen during the games.

“Because it can go by so quickly, and it can be quite an emotional week for everybody for different reasons.”

Ms Williamson added: “I just can’t wait to see the rest of the team have that first games experience and just see their faces, of how proud they’re going to feel of themselves for just doing this.”

Ms Williamson served as a medic in the RAF for 10-and-a-half years and represented the RAF rugby union women’s team.

During a training session, she injured her right hand and did not think much of it at the time.

As the weeks and months passed, she realised she was losing the function in her hand which then went up her arm.

“Now I’ve got very little function of my whole right arm and I’ve had to learn to be not only just left-handed, but one-armed, and adapt my entire life to this new way of living,” she said.

Ms Williamson, about to go into her second