SWIMMING legend Tracey Wickham has revealed she is a month away from being homeless.

Ms Wickham, who is also struggling to walk following a fall five years ago, confessed she was about to be kicked out of the Surfers Paradise unit she has called home for 12 months.

The former darling of Australian swimming, who needs a walker to get around after three spinal fusions, is in the middle of a lawsuit after suing the Regatta Hotel in Toowong.

The 52-year-old slipped on the floor at the hotel five years ago and cracked her lower back, which has prevented her from working ever since.

Now broke, unemployed and living off Centrelink payments, Ms Wickham also admitted she had attempted to take her own life after the death of her daughter Hannah to cancer nearly eight years ago.

At the height of her career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the former world record holder in the 400m and 800m freestyle events was earning six figures.

Ms Wickham said she now had less than $2000 to her name.

“At the moment I’ll either end up in my car or a caravan,” she said.

“I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t afford anything.

“My head pounds at night and I hardly sleep, I don’t know where I’m going.

“I’ve got two dogs (Jemma and Kimmi) that I’m not going anywhere without, and I need proper equipment throughout the house.”

Ms Wickham, who retired at her best when she was 19, won four Commonwealth Games gold medals at the 1978 Edmonton and 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

She said she had lost her will to live when her only daughter Hannah died at 19.

“I was just focusing on Hannah, that’s all I cared about,” she said.

“It took me a good three years to get back into it after I lost her, I had proposals ready to send out to major companies to do my swim clinics and motivational talks, because I knew Hannah wouldn’t want me to sit around and mope ... and then I had the fall.”

Ms Wickham, who become in love with the Gold Coast, is ready to spend the eighth anniversary of her daughter’s death on someone’s couch or alone in a caravan.

She can’t put into words how that reality makes her feel but she promised herself a long time ago she’d never stop fighting.

“Reality is hitting me that I have to move and I literally don’t have the finances, and I’m in so much pain,” she said.

“I’m hanging on by a thread, it’s not even dental floss thread, it’s thinner.

“That thread, no matter how thin, will always be there. So much has happened to me in such a short time.

“I’ve been abused by guys, had broken legs, a smashed jaw, major divorce, three surgeries, death of a daughter, you name it. But I’m still here.

“Mum always says to me if it was anybody else they’d be six foot under.

“That’s why I became a world champion. Because of my tenacity and guts.

“I don’t know where I’m going or where I’ll end up, and to be honest I can’t see a light at the end of this tunnel.

“But I’ve always been a fighter. It’s just in my heart to not give up.”