I first had the pleasure of interviewing Paralympic athlete Stef Reid MBE six years ago, mere weeks after London 2012, where she won silver in the long jump. Determined and dedicated, Stef exudes positivity, and yet her story – when she recounts it once more – still shocks me.

An aspiring and talented sportsperson even at a young age, New Zealand-born Stef (whose mother is English and father Scottish) was showing great promise in the world of rugby, and at the age of 12 dreamed of playing at international level. However, aged 15, while staying at a friend’s holiday cottage in Canada, where she grew up, Stef was involved in a near-fatal accident that changed the course of her life.

“My friends had an amazing boat and we did a lot of tubing [being pulled through the water riding an inner tube] while we were there,” Stef remembers. “The morning I was due to leave, we decided to go out one more time.

“I’d fallen off the tube during my turn and was waiting to get picked back up. I saw the boat coming towards me and didn’t think much of it, but then I looked back a few seconds later and realised he was coming way too fast. There’d been a miscommunication between the spotter and the driver, so the driver didn’t even know I was in the water. He didn’t see me.”