Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington has revealed that she started therapy to help cope with panic attacks after the death of her grandad. The 30-year-old athlete was very close to her grandad Gordon who died aged 90 last July. Speaking at the ICC’s 100-day countdown to the Cricket World Cup on Monday, the Mirror reported that Rebecca said: "It’s going to be a tough journey. The panic attacks have always been there. But I have had them more recently. It normally takes some sort of event that sets something off." She added: "My family are brilliant, but it's good to talk to somebody neutral. We all need to admit sometimes we need help."
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Rebecca and her family
Mum-of-one Rebecca previously spoke to HELLO! about how close she is to her whole family, explaining that she wouldn't be where she is without the love and support from them all. Speaking about her mum, she said: "It's pretty much all down to my mum, she is literally my superhero. We lived about 45 minutes away from the swimming pool when I was growing up. So my mum was getting up at half four in the morning, taking me to training. She then gave up her job because it was so much time in the car."
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The competitive swimmer won two gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle. She was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908. Rebecca has also won won bronze medals in both the women's 400-metre and 800-metre freestyle events in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In 2013, she announced she was retiring from all competitive swimming.
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