All eyes were on the ice on Sunday evening (January 23) as the second half of this year's Dancing on Ice contestants performed in front of judges for the first time.
Amongst the glitzy celebrity cohort was Paralympic star Stefanie Reid, who wowed viewers with her impressive routine with her pro figure skater professional partner, Andy Buchanan.
Although fans of the show are often amazed by the (mostly) spectacular performances put on by rookie skater contestants, Stef's dance to Baby Give It Up by KC & The Sunshine Band really stood out to those at home.
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For those who have not been watching this year's series, or are unfamiliar with who Stef is, the Australian-born, Toronto-raised sports star lost the lower part of her leg and foot in a boating accident when she was just 16.
Stef appeared on a bareMinerals panel back in 2015, where the impact of the media on body image was discussed. When asked whether other women complaining about their body issues bothered her after what she has been through, Stef said: "No not at all, it all stems from the same root cause.
"I was 16 when I lost my leg and I remember lying in hospital; well-meaning friends had sent cards and magazines, and there was Cosmopolitan included in that, and I remember just looking at it and coming to this realisation of, 'Do you know what? I’m never going to look like any of these people. Gosh, I don’t even have all of my limbs let alone the perfect hair, the perfect skin'.
"In some ways, I’m incredibly thankful for that moment because that was the moment, for all intensive purposes, I kind of checked out of the media world because everything about my life at that moment told me I was going to be unhappy, unsatisfied, unsuccessful - but I didn’t feel like that.
"I was still really happy, I was disappointed at the loss of my leg but incredibly thankful to still be alive and incredibly thankful for what I did have left and absolutely determined to make the most of it."
Stef's life was saved by a surgeon in Toronto who amputated her leg below the knee. Whilst Stef was in hospital, she was looked after by a nurse called Claudette, who gave the future Paralympian a taste of tough love.
"When the accident initially happened… I was a rugby player, I wanted to play professionally, that was my life’s dream. And then, obviously, you lose part of your leg and you can’t run anymore and you just think ‘What am I going to do?’ I was devastated," Stef said.
"I was miserable, I didn’t want to have visitors.
"I was just really angry and really frustrated, and about a week after the accident, I had a nurse that came in, Nurse Claudette, and she had brought breakfast, and she walked in and I just said ‘I just really don’t feel like eating today’.
"She said ‘That’s fine, why don’t you get up and I’ll help you wash your hair and get showered?’ and I just didn’t care, I didn’t want to do anything, and I said ‘I just don’t feel like it’.
"The next thing I knew, she slammed the breakfast tray down on my bed and looked me in the eye and just said ‘Stefanie, that’s enough - I don’t care what you feel like, you have got to get up and you have got to get moving. You’ve got to stop being so miserable.’
“I was absolutely shocked. She wasn’t scary, she was just the first person that walked in and actually expected something more from me than moping. She was the first person to challenge me, and that felt really good."
Stef has said she 'refuses to be a victim' when it comes to 'the media' telling her what she can and can't think about herself, saying she will 'never give someone else the power to control what I think and how I act'.
After her performance on Sunday evening, fans of Dancing on Ice took to Twitter to express their admiration for 'inspirational' Stef.
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Wesley tweeting: "Okay but can we talk about the fact that Stef Reid #DancingonIce is an absolute machine. She's competing with able bodied contestants and holding her own with one leg. What a woman #amazing."
Meanwhile, Mike said: "Stef Reid Amazing showing people who have a disability nothing is impossible #DancingOnIce"
Fans also rushed to defend Stef and Andy on Sunday evening after judges awarded them what viewers deemed to be a low score.
Ashley, Oti, Jane, and Chris all gave the pair's dance a score of 6.0, which led to a combined total of 24.0.
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