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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Kyle O'Sullivan

Dancing on Ice's Stef Reid lost foot in boating accident and was 'almost cut in half'

Dancing on Ice is known for it's horror injuries - but that won't bother Steff Reid.

The Team GB Paralympian, who is taking part in the new series with pro skater Andy Buchanan, faces a greater challenge then any of her competitors.

Not only does Stef have to learn to perform on the ice, but she has to work out the logistics of skating with a prosthetic leg.

"It was really hard at the beginning, because I had never skated before, so I didn’t really know what I needed and the first few months were such a struggle," she revealed on ITV's Lorraine this week.

"I didn’t have any confidence putting weight on my artificial side and the thing with skating is you have to be able to balance evenly."

Stef was just 15-years-old when she lost her right foot in a boating accident in which she nearly lost her life.

Stef Reid taking part in the long jump at the Tokyo Paralympics (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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She was staying with a friend and her family at their lakeside cottage in Canada for the weekend.

Stef came flying off an inflatable ring that was being pulled by a boat on the lake, but there was a miscommunication between the driver and spotter so they didn't see her.

Running out of time as the boat headed towards her, Stef decided to dive down into the water but she had to take off her lifejacket first.

"I was underwater for what felt like a long time and when I finally reached the surface, gasping for breath, I couldn’t feel any pain," she told The Mirror in 2016.

"My first thought was, 'That was lucky. I’m not going to tell my mum that happened!' Then I noticed the water around me was red. Everyone on the boat was freaking out and I knew something was wrong.

"Although I couldn’t see my injuries below the water, the propeller had caught me across my right leg, my glutes and lower back. I didn’t know it, but it had almost cut me in half.

"What I did know was there was way too much blood. I had no feeling in my right foot and I thought I was going to die."

Stef is taking part in Dancing on Ice (ITV)
Stef with her silver medal in London (Getty Images)

Because it was a bank holiday weekend and no air ambulances were available she was taken to a local clinic which wasn't equipped to deal with serious injuries.

After being transferred to a bigger hospital she had an operation and her life was saved by one of the country's top surgeons who amputated her right leg below the knee.

"When I woke up after my operation, I was just thankful to be alive. My surgeon had worked miracles," said Stef.

"There are a lot of important organs around your lower back where my main wound was and propellers are dirty, but I was told they’d cleaned the wound, surgery had gone well and there’d been no spinal damage…

"Then my mum came in. She said, 'They did everything they could, but they had to concentrate on your back… They had to amputate your foot.'"

Inspirational Stef started taking part in track and field, making it all the way to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing where she won a bronze in the women's 200m T44 event for Canada.

Stef is skating with Andy Buchanan (PA)

In 2010 she switched allegiances to Team GB and won silver medals in London 2012 and Rio 2016 in the Long Jump F44.

Stef has opened up about her fears of skating on her artificial leg ahead of her ice rink debut this weekend.

Admitting it is the "hardest thing" she has ever done, she said: "It was a little bit disheartening initially, but we eventually found a set up that works quite well and it's given me a lot more confidence."

Stef said that in everyday life she can "cheat a little bit" and rely on her real leg more than her prosthetic, but admitted this was not an option in the ice rink.

She added: "We all know anything can happen. That’s what you take on when you take on Dancing on Ice.

"Anything in life can be dangerous and I would never want to live constantly worried about the worst thing that can happen. So when I told him, he said ‘Stephanie, you’re nuts’, but he just thinks I’m nuts in general."

*Dancing on Ice airs tonight on ITV at 6.30pm

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