'Kicked to the kerb' - is boxing failing its heroes?
Warning: This story contains information some readers may find distressing. The BBC Action Line has details of a range of advice and support for anyone affected by the issues raised. In the mid-1950s, Terry Spinks was a phenomenon.
A bookmaker's son who climbed to the pinnacle of amateur sport to win Olympic gold at the 1956 Melbourne Games, the Londoner became a household name. "He couldn't walk down the street without everybody getting hold of him and wanting to take him in the pub," says his cousin, Rosemary Elmore. She describes him as the David Beckham of his era.
But behind the flashbulbs and pints being bought by strangers, a darker story was being written. The adulation of the public offered little protection against the physical and neurological toll of the ring. Decades after standing on that podium, the man the nation loved fell into a battle with alcoholism and ended up in a clinic for brain injuries.
"Terry didn't know me. He didn't know anybody," says Elmore. Elmore eventually gave up her career to care for him on a carer's allowance.
It is a sacrifice she made willingly, but she is under no illusions - not every fighter is lucky enough to have a family to catch them when they fall. "My mum says I gave my life to Terry," she says. Spinks died in 2012 at the age of 74.