Former swimming star Tracey Wickham says she contemplated suicide following her daughter's death last year.
Wickham, 45, the freestyle gold medallist from the 1978 and 1982 Commonwealth Games, lost her daughter Hannah Ciobo, 19, to sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, in October last year.
Wickham told the Nine Network's A Current Affair program tonight that she had since suffered severe depression and had spent several stints in Brisbane's Pine Rivers private hospital for psychiatric treatment since her daughter died.
"It's a horrible pain. It's in your gut," Wickham said.
"I'd rather chop off both my legs without being under general anaesthetic. Anything just to have that pain taken away because I don't want to have to live with it for another 40-odd years."
Wickham said she had been unable to work, had no partner and had thought about ending it all.
"I need medical help for sure," she said.
"I didn't want to be on this earth. I didn't want to be here.
"I just didn't want to have to live without Hannah.
"There are times when I have popped a few pills and hoped to God that I wouldn't wake up in the morning, and hoped that I would just stop breathing, but I woke up and I'm glad I did.
Wickham said she was now taking medication and having regular counselling to treat post-traumatic stress disorder following Hannah's death.
Victorian-born Wickham plans to move from Queensland to Melbourne to help with arrangements for a major fundraiser for Hannah's Chance, a charity established to help teenagers diagnosed with sarcoma.
The cancer affects connective tissue and is most common in people aged 12 to 25.
