A Mother's Ultimate Sacrifice: How Stef Reid Overcame Tragedy to Shine
The events of August 6, 2000, remain etched vividly in Stef Reid's memory. What began as "the best weekend of my life" swiftly transformed into a nightmare that would redefine her existence. At just 15 years old, Stef pleaded with her strict mother, Carol, to allow her to visit lakes in rural Canada with close friends. After gaining permission, she experienced the exhilaration of racing across the water on a tube, towed by a speedboat. "You bounce along the waves and eventually you're thrown into the water, as I was," Stef recalls. "I turned to wait for the speedboat to come back and collect me."
The Horrific Accident That Changed Everything
In those final, terrifying moments, Stef realized the boat driver had not spotted her in the water. "In a split second I realized he was heading straight for me – and my brain shifted into survival mode," says Stef, now 41. "I thought, 'Stef, you need to avoid those propellers', so I tried to dive under the surface to safety but I had a lifejacket on." She describes a memory of darkness and suspended time underwater, swimming toward the light on the surface. Initially, she felt lucky, thinking, "Wow, that was really lucky, I won't tell my Mum," unaware of the severe injuries.
However, shock, terror, and panic soon set in as she couldn't see her legs and felt strange sensations. A lifeguard swam to her aid, and when pulled back on board, Stef was bleeding profusely. The propeller had inflicted deep gashes along her back and mangled her right foot. "I wanted to talk but I couldn't get the words out," she says. On land, friends fashioned a stretcher from a deckchair and placed her in a van, with a nurse neighbor accompanying her to meet an ambulance.
A Mother's Heartbreaking Plea
Stef's mother, Carol, an Englishwoman married to Scotsman Philip, rushed to the hospital. As surgeons discussed potential amputation, Carol made a desperate plea: she begged them to amputate her own healthy foot and graft it onto Stef's damaged limb. "I'll never forget my mum begging the surgeon, 'Can you amputate my leg and give it to Stef?'," Stef says. "After all those years of teenage arguments and disagreements, I learned in that moment that my mum put me first in everything."
This profound realization ended their conflicts. "All those times as a teenager when I was angry with her because she was too strict, I realized she just wanted me to be safe," Stef reflects. "I never fought with her again. I realized she loved me so much, she would sacrifice her own leg to help me. It made me realize how lucky I was." Carol, now 71 and a retired bookkeeper, slept on a chair beside Stef's bed for three weeks during her hospital stay.
From Despair to Paralympic Success
Facing the shattering of her dream to become a professional rugby player, Stef felt angry, miserable, and in pain. "I had to accept that sport wasn't going to be part of my life and threw myself into my studies instead," she says. Returning to school, she aspired to become a surgeon. Two years later, she received her first running blade. While studying biochemistry at Queen's University in Ontario, she joined the running team, curious about her potential speed. Soon, she was competing alongside non-disabled athletes.
At age 22, an invitation to run in Manchester led her to pause her studies and train for the Paralympics as a long-jumper and sprinter. This gamble proved fruitful: Stef won a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing for Canada, and a silver in the long jump at the London 2012 Paralympics for Great Britain. Leveraging her British parentage, she moved to the UK full-time in 2011, living and training in Leicester, and later transitioning to inspirational speaking and broadcasting after retiring from athletics in 2022.
Beyond the Track: TV Fame and New Ventures
Throughout her achievements, Carol remained Stef's biggest cheerleader. "Mum gave up her weekends to drive me to competitions and she was always in the crowd shouting 'Go, Stef, go!'," says Stef, who now lives in Loughborough with husband Brent Lakatos, a Canadian wheelchair racer. Her success extended to TV appearances on Celebrity MasterChef and Dancing on Ice, where she reached the quarter-finals.
Reflecting on these experiences, Stef notes, "The scariest was Dancing on Ice. I wasn't a natural skater and it was so nerve-wracking because I'd have an epic fall in every final practice, which made the live skate on television so much worse hours later. My legs used to feel like jelly but I realized I could still function under all that stress." For Celebrity MasterChef in 2018, she had little cooking experience and misunderstood the format, expecting mentorship each episode. Instead, she turned to YouTube for daily lessons, a skill that now enables her to host fantastic dinner parties.
Inspiring Others with Boldness and Joy
Currently, Stef is presenting TV coverage of the Winter Paralympics in Italy from a studio in Toronto. She also serves as a diversity ambassador for British Ice Skating, an inspirational speaker, and a high-performance coach. "My best advice is just go for it," she emphasizes. "My life could have been wrecked when I was 15 but I would never have achieved what I have without losing my foot – or without my amazing mother helping me every inch of the way."
Recently, Stef launched the Hail Mary Friday Club, encouraging people to live with more boldness and joy. Her journey from a tragic accident to Paralympic glory and media prominence stands as a powerful testament to resilience, maternal love, and the human spirit's capacity to overcome adversity.
