Paralympian and BBC commentator Stef Reid has opened up on a pivotal moment after a horrific accident left her needing amputation. She said one nurse’s words changed her life
A conviction that tomorrow could always be better has propelled Stef Reid to dizzy heights, despite losing her right foot in a terrifying accident when she was just 15.
A straight-talking nurse was her saviour when, rather than sympathising, she told the teenager that it was “time to move on.”
An accomplished paralympian, she is commentating for the BBC alongside retired track and field star Steve Backley at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, from 13-21 September. And the challenges won’t stop there.
Already a TV favourite – she has taken part in Dancing on Ice and Celebrity MasterChef – and would jump at the chance to compete in Strictly or I’m a Celebrity.
And she credits the nurse Claudette’s straight talking 25 years ago for her success. Recalling that day in hospital, she says: “I’d just had a life-changing injury and people accepted my outbursts, but she did not.
“I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t seeing visitors, I just didn’t care. She brought breakfast and I said ‘I’m not going to eat today, just take it away.’ She stared directly at me and said ‘Stephanie, it is time to move on. Others have and you will too.’
“That was quite shocking to me. She was the first person who expected something better from me and the first person who challenged me.
“I remember thinking ‘who does this nurse think she is? I am sad and my life has just been transformed – how dare she?’ But maybe I’d just been waiting for somebody to give me a challenge and an element of hope.”
And while she had to learn to walk again and deal with “phantom leg pain” she says: “I was lucky. I always had just enough hope that maybe tomorrow would be better.”
Stef’s life changed in an instant when she was involved in a catastrophic boating accident which led to her amputation.
Forced to quit her dream of playing professional rugby, instead Stef threw herself into athletics, going on to win medals at the Paralympics – becoming a world champion long jumper.
Speaking of the accident, during a fun-packed weekend away when she was staying at pal’s family holiday cottage, she says: “We went tubing; it was my first time and it was super fun – you go flying across the water.
“I fell off and I was waiting in the water for the boat to circle back and pick me up, as I had done several times before, but there was a miscommunication and this time the driver had no idea I was in the water.
“I saw him coming towards me too fast. I knew I didn’t have time to move, so I planned to dive down so the boat would pass over the top of me.
“But I couldn’t get under the water, because I had a life jacket on and my lower back and right leg were caught in the propeller.
“The back injury was the most serious – it was a very big, open, messy wound – but fortunately, I had no spinal damage or internal injuries. However, there wasn’t a lot they could do to save my right foot. It was damaged beyond repair and had to be amputated.”
Thanks to Claudette’s sage advice triggering a sea change in her attitudes, she was soon inspired by the opportunities ahead of her, rather than dwelling on the past.
“I thought I was going to die and the accident clarified what’s important in life. That was an incredible gift and I really appreciate it,” she says.
“I could have lost every limb on my body and I still would have been me. I would still have been this person that wants to work hard and train and challenge myself and compete.
“Life throws all sorts of things at you, but we can adapt, we can rise to the challenge. That’s why I would do Strictly or I’m A Celebrity.
“Success is never guaranteed, but any time you’re given an opportunity in life you should say yes. Because not everybody gets them and they don’t always come back.”
In the coming week in Tokyo, all eyes will be on heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson – seeking to defend her title – and 800m runner Keely Hodgkinson, who is hoping to go from silver to gold this year.
Then, three days after the event ends, Steff heads to New Delhi to commentate on field and track at the Para Athletics World Championships.
With her positivity and enthusiasm shining through everything she does, she is a million miles away from the despair she felt when she first lost her foot.
“Life looked awful and I thought ‘what is the point in even surviving this if this is what it’s going to be like?'” She admits. “I thought what had happened was worse than death.”
One great help in staying positive has been the Christian faith she found after her accident – having prayed for the first time in the back of the ambulance rushing her to hospital.
She recalls: “I was very aware that I might not survive and that was terrifying. There was nothing I could do and that was the first time that I prayed.
“I said ‘God, please save my life. I’m out of options and I promise I’ll do better and be less selfish.’
“I have no doubt that God answered that prayer. If my body had been in just a slightly different position I would have been cut clean in half. Or maybe the propellers would have hit my head or an artery and I would have bled out instantly.”
A multiple medal winner at European and World level, Stef won a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2008 Paralympics and silver in the long jump at the 2012 Paralympics.
In 2013 she appeared in Vogue magazine after modelling for Debenhams when they became the first high street chain to use disabled models in one of their campaigns.
She retired as an athlete in 2022 and has been seen on our screens in a host of shows including Pilgrimage earlier this year.
Away from work, she has recently become an ambassador for Tearfund, a Christian charity that partners with churches in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries.
“What appealed was the way they work,” she explains. “Tearfund go in and work with churches and local communities. That’s key, because they’ve been there long before Tearfund arrived and they’ll be there long after Tearfund has left.
“It’s about bringing resources and opportunities to people that the world has forgotten and helping them achieve their dreams.”
The charity’s work has also helped put her own situation into perspective. “I am probably one of the luckiest people on the planet,” she reflects. “What I went through was incredibly hard, yet I know how fortunate I am in terms of the support that I’ve had.
“My life would look radically different if I did not have access to prosthetic legs. At night, if I wake up and have to pee, I crawl to the bathroom because it’s quicker than putting on my leg. But if I was born in one of the world’s poorest countries, I would be crawling all the time.”
Stef, who lives in Loughborough with her husband-of-16 years, Canadian wheelchair cyclist Brent Lakatos, who was paralysed as a child after a freak ice skating accident, says she turned him down when he first asked her out.
She confesses: “I just wasn’t interested in dating, but also – and this is going to sound terrible, but it’s honest – he was in a wheelchair. There was an element of me that thought – ‘I don’t want to end up a carer in this relationship.’
“I was a person with a disability who didn’t like people making judgements about my disability and yet I completely judged him.”
But fighting and overcoming any personal negativity is what also makes Stef an excellent motivational speaker.
She says: “Now when I speak to people about disability, I know what I thought before I became a disabled person and I know what I think now. It’s helpful that I’ve lived on both sides with two different identities.”
To support Tearfund’s work around the world visit: www.tearfund.org/hope