Gemma Spofforth will close one chapter of her life at the London Olympics and begin a new one.

The 100m backstroke world record holder admits these Games will be her last hurrah in the pool before she pursues her ambition of trying to help others to cope when life becomes unbearable.

Spofforth knows only too well how that feels.

The Shoreham-born swimmer has experienced extreme highs but also the sort of life-questioning tragedies that could drown anyone in a sea of despair.

Spofforth has contemplated suicide and quitting the sport in which she has excelled ever since her parents took her to galas around Sussex as a child.

The 24-year-old, who moved to university in Florida in 2006, suffered the loss of her mother, Lesley, to cancer in 2007.

She contemplated suicide in the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where she finished just outside the medals, but a year later she set the world record in the 100m backstroke on the way to gold at the World Aquatics Championships in Rome.

When she returned to Sussex she spoke of her plans to become a counsellor at a crisis centre when she went back to university in the States.

European success followed in 2010 and three silver medals at the Commonwealths but in 2011 tragedy again struck when her father Peter's girlfriend, June, died of lung cancer.

June's daughter, Vicky, died months later, another victim of the same disease.

The pool was no escape from her troubles though, as she went to the World Championships in Shanghai as defending champion in the 100m backstroke but failed to make it through the heats.

Unsurprisingly, she questioned even attempting the London trials but qualified and two days later discovered she had been accepted onto a post-graduate course in psychology and counselling.

It is another high for the girl from Slindon near Arundel and this time she is determined to savour it.

Spofforth said: “Swimming has been a great stepping stone. It has given me so much and I have had an amazing career.

“I am pretty sure London is going to be the end of my career and it is going to be an amazing way to go out no matter what happens.

“London is the final chapter of my journey in the pool and I would like to go out with a bang.

“I have personal goals that I don't share with people but my biggest goal is to go out and experience London.

“When I was in China I didn't get the whole experience. I was swimming but overawed by everything.

“The great thing about London is that I will be able to experience it.”

Spofforth has been training hard in the build-up but still found time before returning to Britain to spend time with youngsters who have had troubled upbringings.

She said: “I went to Atlanta to the International School and spoke to some of the kids there and then I went to one of the mayor's Centers of Hope.

About 200 kids came to listen to me talk and we had a swim afterwards.

“That's the kind of thing I love to do. I'm in sport so I can give to other people.

“So many people have given me so much so my favourite thing to do is to give back to people.

“The mayor's centre of hopes are for people who have had a rocky childhood. It's a place for after school for families who struggle and it is something that is close to me.

“They are people I have been in the same boat as or even worse. It's so amazing to hear their stories and understand where they have come from.

“It's inspirational, they all have smiles on their faces and are so happy. That is what sport does.

“It brings people together and teaches you how to be a good person, how to continue in life and work with other people.”

Spofforth laughs when it is pointed out that, unlike some athletes, she seems to have quite a varied focus.

“My whole life I have had a very varied focus!

“I don't like to define myself as a swimmer. I don't say that swimming is 100% who I am like a lot of athletes have to.

“I have a lot of things on the side and I am going to Grad School after the Olympics.

“Winning a gold medal would be an amazing thing but I am not going to put all my eggs in that basket and say I shall end my life if I don't.”

But Spofforth insists that if she does not get a medal it won't be for a lack of effort.

She said: “I have a lot of motivation because this will be my last meet and will put everything into it.

“I want to leave everything in the pool and not have any unfinished business.

“If I swim the best I can and come out with the best result I could physically do at that time knowing I could not put any more in, then I shall be satisfied.

“My motivation comes from that but from people I have met.

“Even the kids that have come through adversity and come out on the other side smiling.

“The people I speak to on the suicide hotline, who have serious problems and want to end their life, but by the end of the call we have managed to figure how they can go on and make something of who they are.

“It's that turnaround, that drive that people have just to live and be happy that helps me put my motivation into the pool.”

London may be the final chapter on Spofforth's top-class swimming career but she has already turned her attention to another project.

She said: “I am writing a book which is almost an autobiography but only this past six years.

“It's leaning towards the death of my mother rather than swimming.

“It's going to be very honest and there will be a lot of things in there that I went through.

“I know everyone feels things differently but I also know that a lot of things are very similar after talking to people who have been through the same sort of situations.

“I will be nice to put things down in words.”

Boxout Spofforth has a sweet tooth which even extends to her dog being called Decker, after the double decker chocolate bar.