Stef Reid Fern Britton Meets...

My guest this week, on the first Sunday of Advent,

is one of British Athletics' brightest stars.

She's a Paralympian, a five-times world record holder,

and reigning long jump world champion.

It's no wonder she calls herself The Blade Stunner.

She wants to be first. She pushes herself to be the best

that she can be, regardless of the obstacles in front of her.

Stef Reid trains here,

at Loughborough University's Elite Athletic Centre.

It was in 2008, during the Beijing Paralympics,

that she first came to public prominence,

when she won a bronze in the 200 metres.

Then, in London 2012, she won silver,

but this time in the long jump.

And that was a feat that she replicated again in Rio last year.

Stef wasn't born with a disability.

At the age of 15, with aspirations to be an international rugby player,

she was involved in a boating accident

which changed her life forever.

I was terrified at the prospect of dying. I was 15.

You know, this really wasn't a scenario

that I had ever even remotely considered.

There was some indication that she wasn't going to make it,

because she'd lost so much blood.

Not knowing if she would survive,

Stef made a pact with God.

I remember being in that ambulance

and just really praying for the first time.

"God, please save my life.

"I have no hope at all right now,

"except beyond what you can give."

Stef's prayers were answered - but after a life-saving operation,

she had to face some dreadful news.

My mum walked into the recovery room,

and she just took my hand and just said,

"You know, my darling, I'm so sorry,

"but the surgeons couldn't save your leg,

"and they had to amputate."

And...

..I was devastated.

Stef decided to focus her energies on her studies,

gaining a degree in biochemistry,

which she intended to be a stepping stone to medical school.

One day, Stef was looking out of a window, watching a friend of hers

who was training on an athletics track, and Stef thought to herself,

"Hmm, I was quite fast when I had two legs and no disability.

"I wonder how fast I'd be now."

And she took one of the biggest gambles of her life.

She decided not to go to medical school,

but to try her luck as a full-time athlete.

And she succeeded, big time.

It's a story that resonates with our theme

for this first Sunday of Advent, which is hope.

And it's not as if her accomplishments

stopped at athletics.

Determined to challenge stereotypes about disability

and body image,

Stef became a fashion model on the London catwalk.

What that proves is that

we don't need to see models

who are airbrushed and tall, thin, young.

We want to see inspirational women,

and she was absolutely the right woman for the job.

Stef has met the Queen, the Pope,

and has even starred in a short feature film.

Hey! What was that?!

-Are you all right?

-Just leave.

Just leave!

It's a remarkable story, especially how her deep faith

has comforted her in times of total despair.

And that faith continues to comfort her and drives her on,

perhaps to that elusive gold Paralympian medal in 2020...

..and to who knows what else? We'll see.

Since joining the British Athletics team in 2010,

Stef's home has become Loughborough and during the day,

it's the university's sports facilities.

-It's a bit cold, isn't it?

-It is a bit.

You haven't got enough meat on you, girl.

So, everything you were doing just there - what were you doing?

So, we have a brilliant 400-metre outdoor track.

We have the indoor location, and so, typical day of training,

you never come in and just start -

you come in and you do a warm-up to get your body ready to go, and so...

-Is that what you were doing there?

-Yeah.

-It looked fairly gentle.

I thought I could do that.

Um, we start gentle and then we kind of build it up, build it up.

But it's nice, too, because you start the day,

and you kind of come in and you see everyone,

and check in and see how everyone's doing,

and then you get ready for some hard work.

You said to me earlier that tomorrow you were doing some very hard work,

and you were a bit frightened about it. So, what are you doing?

I mean, if you're frightened, it must be horrific. So, tell me.

So, it's winter training, and winter training is notorious for being...

It's just hard. You know, you really have to put the work in.

You know, you're breaking down your body,

and you're kind of building the tank.

Doesn't that make you want to be sick at the end of it?

-It does, yeah.

-Yeah.

Stef was born in October 1984 in New Zealand,

to British parents - Phil from Scotland,

and Carol from County Durham.

At the age of four, Stef moved with her family to Canada,

and quickly found out that sport was her passion.

When did you first find out that you were competitive?

I think it was at school.

Yeah. Well, I probably was always competitive.

Erm, I was always quite physical.

I loved running, I loved all sorts of sports.

And it was the school sports day,

and the whole school was involved.

And I was quite small for my age,

and I was in the lowest grade,

but they kind of had the teams mixed, and...

So, how old were you?

-I would have been six.

-Six!

-I would have been six.

And the oldest on the team would have been 12.

And they mix us all up, and you have your team captain,

and we raced in the sprints, we raced in the distance,

and I won both, and it was just a great experience for me.

So that buzz, that sensation, stayed with you and you thought,

-"Let's do it again."

-Definitely. I mean, from that moment on,

I tried out for every school team that there was.

You know, basketball, volleyball, tennis, cross-country,

all those things.

But it was rugby where Stef discovered her real talents lay.

We were really fortunate that one of the teachers at our school

played at a very high national level,

and decided to put out a team for us, and...

I think it was just, you know...

There aren't that many opportunities

as a young female to be able to really explore that aggressive side.

-Yeah.

-But even as an athlete, that was the one sport that, for me,

perfectly highlighted my whole skill set, as a sportswoman.

I think at that time rugby was her favourite.

She was actually very good. She was very fast, but she was clever.

And even at that stage, she was a leader,

cos she would be directing the team.

She did enjoy rugby.

And I actually was opposed.

I was very concerned about potential injuries.

Little did I know what was about to unfold.

At age 15, Stef was living the life of any typical sporty teenager...

..but then a devastating accident during a weekend away

at a friend's house changed her life forever.

It was a holiday weekend in Canada,

and their cottage was located on a lake,

and they had an amazing boat,

and we would do this thing called tubing, and that is where you attach

a rubber tube to the back of the speedboat -

it's kind of really lazy water-skiing,

is how I would describe it - and you would go across the lake.

And, you know, typically, you would hit a sharp corner,

and you would fall off.

And I had fallen off and I was in the water,

and I was just waiting to get picked back up.

And I remember seeing the boat in the distance,

and, you know, just kind of waiting for it, and literally just

looking around, thinking, "Wow, this is just such a stunning day.

"What a great weekend."

At that point, I looked back at the boat,

and I just knew instantly, something was really wrong.

You know, the boat was coming way too fast.

The driver doesn't see me,

and he obviously doesn't know that I'm in the water. And...

You know, your brain just kind of switches into survival mode,

and you start making decisions really, really quickly. And I kind of assessed it immediately.

All you're thinking is, "You have got to miss those propellers."

I knew I didn't have enough time to swim to either side,

and I thought, "Well, this is fine,

"I'm just going to dive below the water, hold my breath,

"I'll let the boat go across, this is going to be fine."

And I forgot that I had a life jacket on.

And I couldn't get under and, you know,

you're trying to fumble with clips and zips, but there's just no time.

And...

I think at that point, you just...

There wasn't anything I could do except for

just kind of hope for the best, really.

Unfortunately, the boat did hit you.

And to be honest, I didn't know.

I didn't know that I'd been hit,

and I was kind of just...

I was on the surface just kind of gathering myself,

and I didn't feel right.

I had been hit by the propeller across my lower back,

and it caught my right leg,

and that was the moment when it was just, "This is...

"This is not good."

It was the day that she was going to be picked up.

We got a phone call to say that she had been injured,

but they did not tell us the extent of the injury.

And I was getting angry that, all the cellphones we had,

all the cellphone numbers, no-one was calling us back.

But then it sort of dawned on me that something more serious,

potentially, had happened.

I tried to stay calm, because all around me was panicking.

And I was driving. We just had to

try and think positive thoughts.

Who knew what had happened? Who came first?

Erm, there was a lifeguard on the boat and he came out

and he grabbed me and they got me on the boat.

And that was when you could just see...

I mean, there was just too much blood.

I remember constantly trying to sit up

and somebody pushing back on my shoulder,

and I'm trying to sit up, and someone pushing back on my shoulder,

cos they didn't want me to see my leg,

because they knew how bad it looked.

But even in that moment, I mean,

I could just see it in everyone's face.

They managed to get you to hospital.

I think it was quite a long way to the nearest hospital.

It was, yeah. We were probably about an hour and a half out,

and it was a tough situation because,

you know, there wasn't a lot of support locally.

They did eventually take me just to a really small clinic

that couldn't do anything.

I remember in the clinic, they sent my parents in

and then it just hit me. Erm...

They've sent them in to say goodbye in case you don't make it.

And that was a pretty sobering moment.

In actual fact, there was some indication

that she wasn't going to make it, because she'd lost so much blood.

And the hospital where she was at

really couldn't handle the situation.

And they were waiting on an ambulance to pick her up

to take her to Toronto.

No blood transfusion, a hospital a long way away,

no-one coming to get you...

What kept you alive?

I was terrified at the prospect of dying.

Erm...

I mean, gosh, I was 15.

This really wasn't a scenario that I had ever even remotely

considered, and I just had a really crushing sense

in the ambulance that I had not lived life well,

in the sense that I had not lived a life

that acknowledged God,

that was lived knowing him.

You know, I didn't really have a relationship with him.

And I mean, from the outside,

probably people wouldn't have said that about my life...

No. You were a 15-year-old girl.

Yeah, I mean, I did well in school, I had lots of friends,

I did well in sports, but I just had this real weight

that I didn't know God.

And I remember being in that ambulance...

..and just really praying for the first time.

You know, "God, I just...

"Please save my life.

"I have no hope at all right now

"except beyond what you can give.

"And I just... Please save my life so that I can do better,

"I can try again, and I can live a life more honouring for you."

When Stef eventually arrived at the hospital,

she was rushed to the operating theatre and a surgeon got to work.

Things went unbelievably well.

We had an amazing orthopaedic surgeon come in,

and just do an incredible job.

You know, there was no permanent internal injury.

You know, I had no spinal damage.

Um... And so...

And I was so thankful to still be alive, and I was thinking,

"Wow, this is awesome." You know, "Thanks, God."

-He's come through.

-Yeah, great job! This is going to be great, you know.

So much of life to look forward to.

But Stef's happiness and relief were about to be cruelly crushed.

When my mum walked into the recovery room...

And she was so sad, and I just thought, you know, "Why is she sad?

"Like, I'm alive." I didn't get it. Um...

And she walked over

and she took my hand and just said,

"My darling, I'm so sorry,

"but the surgeons couldn't save your leg

"and they had to amputate."

And...

..I was devastated.

I remember just kind of turning over and just being so consumed with...

..I guess just grief, really. I didn't know how to process it.

It was so strange because on the one hand, I was so thankful

to still be alive and yet at the same time, I was so angry.

You know, I love sport.

I was playing rugby at the time and all I could think about was,

"How am I going to play rugby if I can't run?"

And, you know, this wasn't part of the deal.

It was devastating.

If you can imagine being 16 years old, quite beautiful...

..erm, and having this accident where in the early part,

she was crawling around the floor.

Erm, it was very difficult for her.

Stefanie was very, very emotional.

She actually was on suicide watch in the hospital.

I stayed at the hospital the entire time.

She dug down deep into the depths of her soul

to find the energy, the courage to move forward.

My mum - literally the first word off her tongue

when anyone even started discussing amputation was,

"Can you amputate my leg instead and give it to Stefanie?

"And I'll learn to walk."

-Um... You know, which obviously wasn't possible at the time.

-No.

But that was her first instinct. It was really hard, you know. She...

She slept in an incredibly uncomfortable chair beside my bed.

I probably wasn't very pleasant to be around.

You know, I was grieving, I was angry, I was not behaving well.

Just even little things, like...

I have this one recollection of her.

I still couldn't get out of bed, so she brought a toothbrush.

And I yelled at her,

because I was really angry that she'd brought my toothbrush

and she had put the toothpaste on in one big blob,

instead of an even line across it.

And, you know...

Didn't react, even though I was being ridiculous.

And patiently corrected it, and then...

..went out into the hall, probably to gather herself,

and I just didn't know how much it affected her.

So, you're taking it out on your mum, which is understandable.

Who else would you take it out on?

Yeah, I just didn't have another outlet.

But again, she was there just absorbing all of that.

And I can't even imagine how hard it was for her.

Did you start to trust God again?

-He'd saved your life but he'd taken your foot.

-Mm-hm.

That was still a sticking point!

I was living in the space where I was both really angry with God

and incredibly at peace with him.

And it sounds like it's impossible to do both, but you can.

And I sensed... I could feel his presence

and his spirit in my hospital room.

And, yeah, it doesn't mean everything was perfect,

it was still really, really hard. But I just kind of had this moment.

I mean, I had to work through it. What do you believe?

What are you willing to base the foundation of your life on?

And I came to the conclusion that, OK, so if God is

the creator of the universe, he's the creator of the world...

..I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I'm going to accept that perhaps I don't understand as much as he does.

Perhaps his perspective is better than mine.

She'd always been involved with church, through family and school.

And I think in a life-threatening situation like that,

that's the natural progression you would take towards your faith.

Then there was a nurse who came in, and could see that you were

maybe wallowing in self-pity.

-But she brought you up sharply.

-She did.

Her name was Nurse Claudette.

And it was... It was seven days,

exactly a week after the accident initially happened, and...

..I suspect she had been around and had been watching some things,

and she came in that morning.

And she had the breakfast on her tray -

and you have to understand, at this stage, I just...

I just stopped caring, you know. I wasn't eating.

I didn't really want to see anyone.

It was just existing, basically.

And I told her I didn't feel like breakfast.

I kind of closed my eyes hoping, pretending to sleep

and hoping she'd get the hint and just leave me alone.

But instead, she put the tray down by my bedside.

And you know, she looked me in the eye.

And she said, very firmly but very gently...

.."That's enough.

"You know, it doesn't... It doesn't matter how you feel.

"You need to start doing something."

You know, there is a...

She said there was a ten-year-old girl in the ward below me

who had lost both of her feet, and she could still smile.

"What's your excuse?"

-And she left it there.

-Wow.

Those words struck home, and Stef was filled with renewed hope

and determination.

After a period of recuperation, Stef soon found that with sport

no longer in her life, she needed another goal to aim for.

She was someone who was determined to make it either in academics,

politics, law, medicine, sports.

She had so many options open to her but I knew this was a major,

major transition for her in her life.

But I remember her yearbook statement.

It's not what lies before you and it's not what lies behind you,

but it's what lies within you.

So, when you got back to school, academia took over.

You also have a very good academic brain and so

you threw yourself into your studies.

How did you fill your time until you left school?

When I went back to school, suddenly I wasn't spending

two, three, four hours any more training.

And I just had this additional time and this additional energy.

And so it all kind of just got poured into my schoolwork.

And so I studied hard.

And, you know, my new goal was I wanted to be a surgeon.

And I ended up earning a full academic scholarship

to study biochemistry at Queens University in Canada.

And from there, wanted to go on and do medical school.

After the experience of spiritual awakening following her accident,

it was at university that Stef discovered her preconceptions

about people with faith were not borne out by reality.

Because that was kind of the first time that I'd realised...

I met Christians who weren't weird, if that makes sense!

-You know...

-Why is that assumption? Weird, Christian.

I know, but I think...

Depending on where you live in the world,

sometimes faith is just not something that's a popular topic.

Or sometimes, people will think that in order to be

a person of faith, you kind of have to check your brain at the door.

You can't still be a deep thinker.

And it was through university, and obviously,

I was sitting biochemistry.

We had a lot... We talked a lot about the world and evolution

-and that sort of thing.

-Yeah.

-So, it was this great period where

I was meeting other Christians in different walks of life,

and again realising, OK, they're not weird.

And seeing how they do life

and how their faith comes through in their profession.

While still at university, Stef was watching a friend

training on an athletics track when she realised being an amputee

didn't necessarily exclude her from excelling at sport.

And I just thought, you know... I had always been pretty fast.

"I wonder how fast I still am."

And that was it, and it was just that small seed

and I couldn't get it out of my head, I'm the kind of person

that once it's there, I just need to see it through.

And I...

I called the coach of the varsity team at the university,

and I kind of explained the situation.

"I've no idea what I'm doing, but I just got this running leg

"and I'd really love just to learn how to use it."

Wow! And how long did it take you

before you actually were in your stride?

You know, I had these visions.

I was going to pick up the sport and I was going to be amazing

and I was going to take over the world

and be the best blade sprinter ever!

And...

-You know, apparently life doesn't work like that.

-Hmm!

At this point in her life,

Stef's sights were still set on going to medical school.

But a chance invitation to the Manchester Paralympic World Cup

in 2006 made her re-evaluate everything.

When did you actually start competing properly?

It was my first ever international meet,

and I didn't know what to expect.

I had never known that Paralympic sport had that potential.

And that's just, again, started a new seed in my mind,

and I just thought...

"You know, 2008 Paralympics in Beijing - what would that be like?

"I definitely don't want to miss out on that."

And it kind of sparked a different course in my life.

So, Stef started to take her training seriously

and, according to her current coach,

has the perfect temperament for an athlete wanting to improve.

We're doing a technical session

and she'll do a jump. And we'll come across.

we know what the objectives of sessions are.

And then she goes back and tries to execute that.

Erm, most athletes will say, "Yeah, coach," and then just move off.

But once she actually takes on the information,

that is now written on her diary sheet,

to make sure that she actually remembers that information

for the next session.

It was in 2005 that Stef met her husband-to-be Brent Lakatos,

who, like Stef, is a Paralympian

and had a disabling accident when young.

But Stef was not a girl who could be won over easily.

I was at Canadian Nationals in 2005.

And so, you kind of know everybody

on the Canadian team from competing.

And then there's this new girl and I saw her one day

and thought, "She's really pretty."

I managed to squeeze her phone number out of her coach,

and get in touch with her

and have a few awkward phone calls back and forth.

And then the next year, I decided,

"OK, well, now I've chatted with her a few times,

"I should probably ask her out on a date or something."

And so, she promptly said no.

It just wasn't the right time for me. I'm always someone...

I just don't know how to do things in half measures.

You know, I would never consider dating someone

unless I saw a future in it.

And at that point, I just didn't.

But Brent wasn't the type to give up.

The World Championships in 2006, we were both selected

and it was a seven-hour plane ride.

And so Brent - very clever -

he called the travel agent and requested to have not only

the same flight path as me, because he was living in Dallas, Texas.

But also he wanted to have the seat ticketed next to me.

All without asking me.

Because he thought, "Brilliant, seven hours on the flight -

"I'll have her undivided attention."

And he came prepared.

You know, he had his DVD player, he had romantic comedies,

he had all my favourite snacks.

And so we went to the World Champs and it was lovely.

You know, we were friends and I did... He was a great friend.

So, sitting next to him on the plane,

did you think, "What a coincidence! We're sitting next to each other"?

Did you really think that?

I did, I asked him about it and he did confess.

And we were coming back and again, he had the seat next to me.

And he began to turn and...

I knew he was going to ask me out again,

and bearing in mind this was the 27th time...

-You'd been counting?

-It was a rough count, yes, but 27th. And...

It was kind of... Again, I had no intention to date him

and I thought, "OK, the kindest thing I can do right now is just..."

I need to end this.

So, I cut him off mid-sentence and I just said, "Brent...

"..I think you're great.

"But we are never ever, ever going to date.

"Ever."

Still, Brent persisted.

This time inviting Stef down to Dallas for a weekend

where they could just be friends.

Stef agreed, but there were strict conditions.

And she sent me an e-mail with about ten rules.

I wasn't allowed to try and hold her hand,

I wasn't allowed to ask her out, I wasn't allowed to...

There were literally about ten rules. And so, I stuck, I was good.

She came down and I followed all those rules, and then

by the end of the weekend, I think her feelings started changing.

On the final day she was there, she was like, "Brent...

"..I think I'm ready to date you."

It was like...

The way that she did it, I was afraid I'd done something wrong!

No, and so I was kind of shocked, but in a good way.

As their relationship grew, the 2008 Beijing Paralympics

were fast approaching - something they were both competing in.

Stef's strongest event was the long jump.

It was a total disaster.

I mean, of epic proportions,

and I walked out of there feeling like a complete failure.

You think, "Gosh... "My family's over here -

"they've spent a lot of money to come and watch."

And you know, you really feel like you've let everyone down.

And I went back to the village

and I cried for about two hours.

-You couldn't be with Brent? You couldn't find him.

-No, Brent came.

-Oh, good.

-And he sat with me crying.

And then I went and I got something to eat.

And then I had to go back to the track

because I had the 200-metre final.

The 200 metres turned out to be a very different story,

when Stef, who was placed in the outside lane,

won a surprise bronze medal.

Out of the corner of my eye, the person leading falls,

and the person in second place also falls.

And I was in fourth place and I just thought, "Stefanie,

"this is never going to happen again. You need to get up there."

And I ended up getting the bronze by 1/1,000th of a second.

For me, it's that reminder.

You fight until the end,

because you don't know how things are going to turn out.

However, Brent had a very different Games.

He didn't perform quite as he wanted.

And again, it's hard in a relationship where you have

two athletes, because it's so rare that your seasons match

in terms of you both do really well or you both maybe don't do as well.

Generally, it's mixed.

This happened in 2013 at the World Champs,

Brent won his first ever World Championship medal,

and I had the most horrible performance I've ever had.

But he would be supportive of you, if he'd had a terrible time

-and you were doing it?

-Yes, of course.

And there is a part of you that really worries, like...

Am I going to be a big enough person to be able to celebrate this?

And I was genuinely scared, I remember praying about this to God.

You know, "God, I'm really scared that he might win that medal

"and I really don't want the first thing that I feel to be jealousy."

And I was so happy that when he did cross,

it was just tears of joy for him.

Because this is not a competition, I've seen him through this journey.

And you know, we've both seen each other in situations

behind closed doors that most people don't see,

and we know how hard it's been for the other person.

And it was just so great to celebrate that with him.

Stef's bronze medal in Beijing opened doors for her.

Wanting to have the best preparation

and facilities for the London Paralympics,

she switched in 2010 from representing Canada

to becoming a British athlete.

That meant leaving her husband Brent behind in Canada.

But it did mean she could become a full-time athlete.

I still kind of choke on the words now, "I'm a professional athlete."

It is hard to say but I think, actually...

OK, the moment that really crystallised it for me...

I was at a gym, I was travelling.

I wasn't in Loughborough, I was at a gym, you know.

It's nice because you can go in and be anonymous and I was squatting.

-And...

-With weights?

Yes, you have like a bar behind your back

and, you know, you can do quite a lot of weight on it.

It looks very impressive.

And, erm, there were these two guys,

either in their late teens or early 20s.

And they came up to me

and asked if I could help them out with their squats.

I was just sitting there thinking, like...

"They have just asked a girl with one leg for help squatting."

So, that was the first time I thought, "Wow, people must obviously

"take me seriously as an athlete," and that did feel good.

By becoming a professional athlete, Stef was full of hope

that she could do one better at London 2012

by winning silver, or maybe gold.

This competitive streak is a trait those closest to her

see on a daily basis.

We have silly little games around the house,

even who can squeeze the last little bit

out of the toothpaste container,

and so if you can imagine taking that to the Paralympics,

it's difficult so she'll take it quite hard,

but then it drives her forward and so, like I said,

she's got a really strong work ethic.

If she didn't achieve what she wanted to achieve

in a certain area, whether it's sport or otherwise,

it'll make her try harder in the future

and so that's what she's done.

At the end of the day, the athletes have got to have talent.

You know, the saying goes,

"You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,"

so you've got to have someone

who has the ability to start with.

That's almost base level because, on top of that,

what you then require is someone who has, one, the belief, the desire

and the motivation to actually be the best or to better themselves.

It's not even about being better than someone else.

It's being better than themselves.

That's the most important thing because they're driven

by being better than they were last week, last year, last month.

As an elite athlete, the difference between a podium place

and walking away with nothing comes down to small margins

and crucial to Stef's success, whether jumping or sprinting,

is the quality of the prosthetic limb she performs on.

-You're wearing your prosthetic leg right now.

-I am.

So, how much is a prosthetic leg?

It can range. I'd probably put them

at a range between £5,000 to £15,000.

Hmm. So, this one?

In terms of value of components, you're probably

looking at about 3,000, but the real craftsmanship is in the socket.

That's what takes the time. You do tonnes of different test sockets.

You need someone who's an expert who can do it and for that reason,

it's really hard to value the work, especially cos I didn't have a bill.

-I couldn't afford them is the answer.

-Now, how many do you have?

-I have five.

-Five?

-Yeah.

-So, a day to day, a blade...

Day to day, I have my everyday leg.

I have three sport legs, so I have my competition running leg,

I have my competition jumping leg and then I have what's called,

like, a jogging leg

so if I wanted to do a sport like basketball or volleyball

that needs side-to-side movement, not just running in a straight line,

then I would use that one and then I have a three-inch high-heel leg.

-For parties?

-Yes!

-With stilettos that fit?

-Yeah, it does.

Actually, it's hilarious

because the only way that I can find a shoe that fits

is I literally have to go into the store

-with the leg and I just think...

-Try it on!

Exactly. I need something that fits the shape of this foot.

-The arch...

-Exactly.

And so their faces are brilliant

and they're trying desperately not to react

and I'll just purposely act

-like it's the most natural thing in the world.

-Exactly.

But the leg that's made her really famous,

and at the same time is the hardest to design, is the blade.

The man responsible is Richard Nieveen.

The prosthesis is fundamental to any athlete.

It has to be comfortable and it has to be secure.

The loads that are going through

the prosthesis are considerable.

In long jump, by example, they're ten times body weight

so comfort is a priority, such that we're not causing injury.

When I qualified some 25 years ago, our core materials were wood,

they were metal, they were leather

and the materials today are primarily

the carbon fibre technology that at that point was used in aerospace

and defence is now used in prosthetics.

In the run-up to London 2012, Stef, on the surface,

had everything set up to go for gold.

# It's looking like a beautiful day... #

A new training base, new coaches and a state-of-the-art prosthetic blade.

# When my face is chamois-creased... #

But then a problem emerged.

Stef was starting to feel the strain of being a professional athlete

while living apart from her husband and family.

In the run-up to the 2012 Olympics, I believe you had some doubts.

Your heart wasn't quite in the right place.

I think it was...

You know, I was starting to really feel the strain

of living apart from Brent, living apart from my family.

There was a lot of pressure.

It was the first time in my life I'd ever had sponsors,

not that I had any pressure from the sponsors.

They were amazing. But it was just that I didn't want

to let anyone down, I didn't want to let the country down

and things were not going well

and I remember I was competing at a meet

and my mum had called me shortly after

and she could hear in my voice that things weren't right

and she wasn't buying the, "No, no, I'm fine," and so finally

I think I just burst into tears and, you know,

just finally said what I'd been trying to avoid thinking about.

"I just don't know if I can do it. I don't know what to do."

And she was brilliant.

She was not a happy camper at that time.

I simply said, "Well, there's two choices.

"You can continue or you can walk away and quit.

"However, if you walk away and quit, you'll never know what might be."

I was very impressed that she decided

to go forward with the challenge.

I'm a firm believer that, yes, it's great to have support around you

and have people who want to guide you

and help you to move forward, but you've got to have that inner fire.

You have to bring it to the table to do

and have the passion to move forward and do this.

But Stef also felt, before London 2012,

that she had somebody else on her side.

I was really nervous

because I'd had an injury

and I hadn't prepared for it as I wanted to

and yet you don't want to go out there and let the home crowd down

and so I was with my friend James, who was also...

He was one of the chaplains there and we'd known each other

from a few years ago and he prayed with me before I went to this race.

I really got this sense of God saying to me,

"This is what I've called you to."

-COMMENTARY:

-She is in good form, regularly going over 5m in training.

Inspired, Stef dealt with the pressures on her...

That's a good jump from Stef Reid.

..overcame her self doubts and won silver in the long jump.

I knew that Stefanie was the kind of person who would go on

to do great things no matter what,

that the severity of her injury in no way would define her

and her goodness and greatness

and the contributions that she would make.

Winning silver at the most successful Paralympics ever

brought Stef to people's attention.

And she was approached by Debenhams to take part in a fashion campaign

which aimed to change people's attitudes

to the stereotypes around body image, including disability.

One person was at the front of my mind and that was Stef

because I knew that she would be just right for this.

I knew she loved clothes,

I knew that she would be that elegant body in my images.

I knew that her walk would be great, I knew that she would be able

to give the best of herself, really, and fit in.

Everything I'd seen from Stef, you know,

from her motivated approach

made me feel she was absolutely the right woman for the job.

This thing about, obviously, prosthetics can be sexy,

attractive, as can anything that's happening to your body. It's OK.

-Yeah.

-Very powerful.

Do you know, it was really special

when I was originally asked to do it. It was just something that...

I don't know, I just never really considered that I would be asked.

I think when the accident happened,

I was obviously a young teenage girl

and you're already going through a number of different challenges

in terms of how you look and I think probably one of the best things

about it was at that age, I just kind of realised,

"Do you know what? I'm not going to look like

"these girls in the magazines,"

and so I kind of just had the freedom to completely remove myself

from any of those standards

and I kind of went on my own journey to accepting the way

my prosthetic leg looked - from being really embarrassed about it

to being, like, "Yeah, you should stare cos it looks awesome!"

Yeah.

The dress that Stef wore was a John Rocha cocktail dress

with her black blade.

The dress very quickly sold out.

What that proves

is that we don't need to see models

who are airbrushed and tall, thin, young.

We want to see individuals, we want to see inspirational women,

we want to see women who present some differentness

so that we can all see where we fit in and that we are a community

and for me, that was real proof

that when we choose a broader range of models, everybody loves it.

I want to do everything that I can just to project

an image of someone that, yeah, looks different

and, yes, does not look like a Vogue model

or someone you would typically see,

but actually is really happy with her body

and with her skin and what it can do.

-And we don't look all the same, anyway.

-No, we don't.

-Why try and aspire to look the same thing?

-Exactly.

One of the best, I don't know, self-esteem moments for me

was being in elite sports and realising,

"Do you know what? Elite female athletes also have cellulite."

-I know!

-Do you?

-I do!

Fashion aside, the Rio Paralympics were fast approaching

and Stef desperately hoped she could do one better

than her London 2012 silver.

I got a bronze in Beijing, I got a silver in London.

You know, what a fairy tale to suddenly get the gold in Rio.

I knew that I had a shot

and I've always been in kind of two minds

about how do I pray before going into a meet

and obviously my instinct is, "God, please let me win!"

But, at the same time, he's not a tame power source,

I don't just kind of dictate to him, "I would like this,

"this and this," and think that it's just going to happen.

God's on everyone's side. He can't just single you out.

Exactly right and he loves everyone and he honours everyone's work

and so it's a ridiculous prayer to pray, "Please let me win,"

but I still pray it just in case. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't help.

But I'm very clear in my mind now.

I feel very much called to be an athlete.

I know that that is what God wants me to do in my life right now

and I take it really seriously.

I'm going to be the best athlete that I can be.

-NEWS REPORT:

-Stef Reid leapt to the lead in the women's long jump

with a leap of 5.64m.

But Rio wasn't to be Stef's year.

French athlete Marie-Amelie Le Fur broke the world record

to pip Stef at the post and take gold.

-COMMENTARY:

-Well, there's tidy

and there's super-tidy by the French athlete.

Marie-Amelie, she jumped amazingly

and I jumped well and, you know,

my coach Aston, he was fantastic. He can obviously...

He knows me and he knew that was hard

and he looked me in the eye and he said,

"Well done, that was a good silver. You be proud of that."

And I was, but it still hurts.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Then this year, in the London Para Athletics World Championships,

that hope as a teenager that she could overcome

the cruellest of blows in life and be the best finally came to pass.

-COMMENTARY:

-..which means Stef Reid

is the World Para Athletics champion.

Stef won that long awaited long jump gold.

Oh, wow, I was there and that was very, very exciting.

That was definitely a very, very delightfully sweet moment

and position to be in. It was electric. It was amazing.

It was thrilling. We loved it!

I've been doing this for, gosh, 11 years now

and it's taken so long and it's so satisfying to finally get there

and a lot of athletes never get to do this

and I'm just so thankful that I've got to the top.

For Stef, only the gold medal matters.

She wants to be number one, she wants to be first.

She pushes herself to be the best that she can be,

regardless of the obstacles in front of her,

and given the fact that she wears a blade,

I can see exactly where that attitude comes from.

So, this summer, you won gold.

-It was amazing, but not for the reasons I expected it to be.

-Yeah.

The reason it was so special was, one,

because this had been a long journey for me, you know.

It took me - gosh, what? - 11 years to finally do this.

I was 32.

It's not always that common that you keep improving in older age,

but I stuck with it and I finally got there.

CAMERA CLICKS

Stef's determination on the running track was mirrored

in her approach to the challenges presented by the fashion world.

So, when she was asked by fashion designer Lenie Boya

to take part in London Fashion Week

as the first-ever amputee on one of their catwalks,

Stef was ready to strut her stuff

and send out a positive message about disability.

It was called the Alternative Limb Project and it was brilliant

because the Alternative Limb Project,

the ethos behind it is that, you know,

forget about making limbs that look real.

Let's turn them into fashion accessories.

And so it was just this idea of, you know,

forget trying to go back to being normal.

Let's take this as a creative opportunity

to create something that you couldn't do with a real leg.

Let's make it, "Oh, I wish I had an artificial leg,"

instead of, "Oh, I'm really sorry,"

which, OK, fine, maybe is a step too far,

so we ended up designing this incredible leg

that fit these two outfits that Lenie had made

and we turned, actually,

one of my old running blades into a stiletto high heel that...

I think the best way to describe it is that it looks like a chandelier.

I mean, you just need to look at the photo and then there was the thing

where you had to learn to walk with it cos, I mean, first of all,

blades are designed only to run.

They're actually incredibly uncomfortable to walk on.

Now, consider you've put a stiletto on the other leg,

you've turned the blade into a stiletto

and you're having to walk

an, I mean, you can't just walk the London Fashion Week.

-You have to walk it with attitude.

-Yes.

It was so much fun.

We mustn't underestimate the importance of seeing images

like this because they're highly glamorous,

they go out in a sort of very high status setting

and they speak to other people of beauty and elegance and difference.

Ready?

Three, two, one...

Go!

Not content with just being a fashion model,

Stef decided to try her hand at starring in a short feature film.

The Energy Within is the story of an athlete

who is embarrassed that she has a prosthetic leg

and tries to lie her way into an able-bodied group of athletes.

I wrote the script about a year and a half ago

and I knew I could only make the project if I had someone

that knew the world better than I did

because I'm not disabled and I'm not an athlete so with my producer,

we went online and I literally e-mailed her fan page,

fully expecting never to hear about that again, except she replied.

It was really great because people have asked a few times,

"Oh, are you going to write a book?"

And I've just never felt compelled to

and part of the reason I've never felt compelled to

is because chronology doesn't really mean that much to me

and even during the accident, a lot of the chronology for me

is mixed up because when...

Obviously, if immediately you're in shock, you're on painkillers

and emotions just kind of skew things,

but what I do remember is how I felt

and I feel like that came across in the movie.

It was the emotions, it was the feelings that were important

and it was a really, really honest look.

-SHE SPEAKS FRENCH

-Hey, hey!

-What is your problem?

-Hey! Calm down, OK?

-This looks really bad.

-No, don't... No, DON'T!

What?

Are you kidding me?

-I'm training with an invalid!

-Kebe!

-You don't think this was worth mentioning?

-Just leave me.

-I think it's broken. I think you...

-Just leave!

Just LEAVE!

OK, session's over, Kebe.

Having never been in a film,

the director was concerned whether Stef could act,

but Stef applied the same discipline to learning

that skill as she did to learning how to run fast or jump far.

There was homework which she did and then asked for more

and I think the funniest...

The most indicative thing that she did that I loved

was when we would practise.

When we do rehearsals, at the end of a scene,

she would then stand up straight, put her arms behind her back

and kind of go, "Right, so what are your notes?"

Like an athlete would at the end of a race talking to a coach.

She said that in athletics, you know exactly how well you're doing

because you know how fast you're running or how far you jump,

whereas here in acting,

that's the hardest thing is that you never really know how you're doing.

We were doing a scene

where I was basically at the doctor's office

and I was in a wheelchair

and things with the prosthetic hadn't gone well

and just really revisiting those emotions

of just total dejection and hopelessness.

And I spent an entire morning obviously acting like that

and then I couldn't understand why I just felt rotten

for the rest of the day, and you just kind of absorb it

and the best way to act is, again, just to revisit those moments

where things did not go well

and you felt like a failure and you felt like giving up and...

Yeah, it wasn't fun, but it was also really, really...

I don't know, I guess healing?

It was good to remember where I've come from.

But despite her venture into movies,

Stef's main focus is still international athletics.

I had a look at your website and it says something like,

"2018 - plans still in work."

So, that means you're obviously planning something,

so what's going on?

Well, Brent and I recently made the decision that we do want

to commit to Tokyo 2020, which is incredibly exciting.

We always knew that we would go through till 2017

and then we were just going to see how things were.

Obviously, I'm now 33, he's 37.

We are slightly older than your average Paralympian,

you could say, but we just feel like we're still getting better.

It's such a privilege to do this and to have this lifestyle

and I just think we're still loving it.

We're going to do it for as long...

It's a short window so we're going to make the most of it.

Paralympian, actor, fashion icon, role model -

Stef Reid has, in the 18 years since losing her lower right leg,

already made her mark on sport and society.

Having someone like Stef in our media is vital.

She's inspirational and she's an individual

and that's the joy of working with someone like her.

Some people put their faith, let's say, in sports psych, yeah?

Stef, I'd probably put her faith in God, yeah?

And from that perspective, that works just as well.

Her confidence is not rooted in pride,

but in a real knowledge of her own strength

and an understanding of herself as a person

and that connection between mind and body and soul and that ultimately

God is her strength and will grant her the desires of her heart.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And Christmas, finally, the pair of you.

-You have family obviously in Canada, some still in the UK?

-Mm-hmm.

So, how do you split your time?

Oh, we're undecided this year.

I guess part of the nice thing about being a couple without kids

is that you're free to have the really indulgent Christmas

where you just sleep in and have a lovely lazy day.

You know, to be honest, it's been a really busy two years

and it's really nice just to have that time, just the two of us

catching up, just getting to be together

and just do really fun, normal things.

And does church come into it? Will you go to church on Christmas Day?

Definitely. We don't always go to church on Christmas Day,

which probably sounds quite weird. But for me, church is...

The primary function of church is community.

The church we went to in Dallas,

they didn't even open on Christmas Day

because they felt that family is so important, you know.

"We don't want people having to wake up early

"and feel like it's a chore and feel like they're rushing to get here."

It's the relationships that, at the end of the day,

that's what's most important and, for me, Christmas is about that.

Stef, it's been such a pleasure to meet you. Really lovely.

Good luck for 2020 and for all the dreams you may have

-for you and Brent.

-Oh, thank you! I really appreciate that.

Wow! What an inspiration Stef is, isn't she?

She's survived that terrible accident, she's gone on

and forged a terrific career and come out with a gold medal.

All of us hit bumps in the road at some times in our life

and it can be difficult to get over them,

but she's shown us that we can.

# So, what happens now?

# Another suitcase in another hall... #

Next week, I'm in Edinburgh

to meet Scottish singer and actress Barbara Dickson.

She's been performing for nearly 50 years,

but fame has never sat easily with her.

I was afraid of losing my soul,

losing my identity.

A sudden attack of stage fright

and exhaustion meant that Barbara took a break.

I think she just went, "Bang! This is too much."

But her Christian faith has carried her through.

God looks after me. I just put my hand

in this great big hand.

This is my hand.

It goes into a great big hand

and he just says, "You're OK."