Coast's 'luckiest guy' happy to help

Coast businessman Ray Grace has twice stared down death and walked away.

Ray Grace has contributed to the Coast for 48 years, helping people where he can. Photo: Chris McCormack

In February 1994, Ray Grace lay in a hospital bed at Nambour, kept alive only by nutrients fed into his increasingly frail body by four tubes.

He had a total blockage in his upper bowel that was inoperable because of two previous operations to remove cancers in that area, his body was completely rejecting food and his doctor told him he would be dead in five days unless the blockage cleared itself.

Two days later he got lucky.

It was the second time the man, who has given as much to the Sunshine Coast as it has given him over the past 48 years, had stared down death and walked away.

In the 1983 floods, Ray had been trapped inside his own car dealership on Coronation Drive at Nambour by a massive wall of water that surged down adjoining Petrie Creek, sweeping away everything in its path.

All the employees, including Graham Chapman, who was miraculously plucked from under the swirling floodwaters with a split second to spare, managed to escape in time ... all except Ray.

“I got trapped inside. Luckily I was able to climb up onto a beam holding the roof up. I tried to kick my way out but was trapped in there overnight,” he said.

The next morning, police drove their rescue boat into the workshop, tore a sheet of corrugated iron off the roof and got him out.

While he survived the flood, his business wasn’t so fortunate.

Including 14 cars that were washed down the creek, the damage bill reached $400,000. The insurance company had paid $250,000 of that before it went broke.

“It was hard work, but we managed to rebuild,” he said.

Incredibly, the business copped it a second time in the floods of 1992, although not to the same extent.

The bowel obstruction two years later was one disaster too many for Ray. He struggled on for a while, but in 1995 sold a majority share of the dealership to present owner Garry Crick who had been managing the company since relocating from Cairns in 1991.

Ray eventually sold his minority share of the car yards in 2005, but still owns a block of shops on Coronation Drive, a day hospital and some vacant land in Howard Street in Nambour, and a portable spa and outdoor furniture business in Caloundra.

But with his 70th birthday looming at the end of the year, the process of disposing of his business interests is well under way.

“The shops are under contract, the land is under contract and the Caloundra business is on the market,” Ray said.

While he is winding up the business side, there is no chance of a slowdown in his community involvement, something that has been a hallmark of his almost five decades on the Coast.

He spent 32 years with the Sunshine Coast Show Society, 16 years with Apex at Nambour, at one stage spending a week sitting on top of a pole in his caryard to raise funds to build the town’s swimming pool, played a key role in getting the Maroochy Aero Club off the ground and more recently helped set up the Woombye Telco which brings more than $1000-a-month into the community.

He was also a key driver of this year’s Christmas in July event which attracted 1100 people and raised thousands for palliative care organisation Cittamani and the Cindy Mackenzie Breast Cancer Foundation.

And it is those community achievements Ray said had given him the most enjoyment.

“I was lucky enough to have a brain that could think of ideas and make them happen. And I get a lot of pleasure out of making things happen for other people ... I think it’s what I was meant to do,” he said.

He is presently working on the most ambitious and biggest fundraising venture he has ever attempted, and will release the details soon.

If it comes off, it will make an extraordinary difference to the lives of people on the Sunshine Coast and across Australia for generations to come.

And he’s doing it while battling debilitating injuries. A consequence of radiotherapy to his bowel cancer was nerve damage in his legs. He also had a triple bypass in 2005.

“It’s become an impossible task to be in business ... but it’s not impossible to get things done for the community,” Ray said.

“I think I’ve been very lucky ... a lot of people are worse off than me.”

Originally published as Coast's 'luckiest guy' happy to help