A Paralympic athlete who plans to win gold in Rio is considering ending her life after the Games due to an agonising spinal disease that leaves her unable to sleep.

Marieke Vervoot, 37, a Belgian athlete, suffers from an incurable spinal degenerative disease that has left her confined to a wheelchair.

But despite the condition she has become one of the world's leading Paralympians, winning gold in the 100m sprint and silver in 200m in the T52 class at the London Paralympics in 2012.

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Defending Olympic 100m champion, Marieke Vervoort of Belgium, has an incurable spinal degenerative disease that is getting progressively worse

Vervoort celebrates winning gold (right) with the United States' Kerry Morgan (left), who won silver, in the women's 200m T52 final at the 2015 Athletics World Championships in Doha

'I suffer greatly, sometimes sleeping only ten minutes a night,' Vervoort said

And now she is hoping to repeat that success when the Rio event starts on Wednesday, which she has already ruled will be her last Paralympics.

However, her health problems have been progressively deteriorating, and have now reached a point, where Vervoot says she will now consider enuthanasia.

And after the Games in Rio, she will head back to her native Belgium to weigh up her options after deciding that ending her life could be the only choice left.

She told the Daily Express: 'I have a bucket list, including stunt flying, and I have started thinking about euthanasia.'

Vervoot's health problems began in 2000 when she was struck down by the rare disease, which paralysed her.

King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium make Vervoort a member of the Nobility during a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Brussels in November, 2013

The athlete arrives with Belgium's team at St Pancras International station before the 2012 London Paralympics

To aid her recovery, she started playing wheelchair basketball before builiding up to triathlon and competing in th 2007 Hawaii Ironman.

However, by 2008, Vervoot's condition deteriorated, meaning she was unable to take part in triathlon and instead moved on to wheelchair sprinting.

It is thought that she constantly suffers sleepless nights and the pain caused by her condition often means she faints regularly, which has led her to conisder her options.

She told French newspaper Le Parisien: 'Everybody sees me laugh with my gold medal, but no one sees the dark side.

'I suffer greatly, sometimes sleeping only ten minutes a night - and still go for the gold. Rio is my last wish.'

At the London Olympics, the 37-year-old wheelchair athlete won gold in the 100m sprint in her T52 class, and silver in the 200m

Vervoort celebrates after winning the women's 200m track event during the 2015 Paralympics World Championships in Doha last October

Everyday Vervoort is tormented with pain, and she records her agony in her diary, with this entry from Sunday, July 17 just one example of what she goes through.

'Fortunately I had a better night even though I had a moment of crisis for about 45 minutes.

'With me this morning, it felt like I had slept only an hour, but that was not the case,' she wrote.

'My body is just exhausted from all that... I let the nurse this morning give me a shot of morphine and this morning went purely on character to the training. I literally knocked all my fears and frustrations out of me.'

Euthanasia was legalised in Belgium in 2002, and can take place with the written consent of three doctors.

It was the second country in the world to legalise euthanasia after Holland liberalised the law a year earlier