Terry Spinks - Telegraph Photographs from the time show him in a jacket several sizes too big, clutching his medal and looking to his mother and father for reassurance - a picture of childlike innocence. Spinks soon turned professional, fighting in the featherweight division and becoming British featherweight champion in 1960, winning with a stoppage of the title holder Bobby Neill. He defended the Lonsdale Belt twice before losing to Howard Winstone in 1961. As a professional, Spinks won 41 of his 49 fights. But after losing to Winstone, he never recovered his form and in 1962 he was advised to retire for health reasons at the age of only 25. Spinks was heartbroken, and before long the cracks began to show outside the ring as well, as he began a steady infatuation with alcohol that almost destroyed his life. Terence George Spinks was born on February 28 1938 and began boxing at the age of nine with the West Ham Amateur Boxing Club. After leaving school he became an apprentice jockey at Newmarket. Though weight problems thwarted his ambitions on the Turf, he was quickly identified as a boxer of great promise when appearing in tournaments for stable lads. As an amateur Spinks fought in around 200 contests, winning schoolboy and ABA championships and boxing for England on five occasions. He was the only boxer to become a schoolboy, ABA, British and Olympic champion. He had his first professional bout in April 1957, against Jim Loughrey at Harringay Arena, winning on a stoppage for a cut eye. In his last fight, in December 1962 against Johnny Mantle, he won by a technical knockout in the eighth round. Spinks's Olympic victory brought him instant celebrity and all the temptations that go with it. He became an habitué of nightclubs and gambling joints, and was photographed with the Kray twins (whose racehorses he was said to have exercised at Epsom). He also began to drink. Before long, his first marriage had broken down and he was declared bankrupt by the Inland Revenue. He tried various trades, including a bookmakers that failed, driving a minicab and running a sweetshop. He became a boxing trainer and coached the South Korean team for the 1972 Munich Olympics, when Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli team. It was Spinks who first raised the alarm: he was out on a run and spotted a gunman (one of the Black September terrorists) approaching the Israeli quarters. After divorcing his first wife Spinks remarried, but in the early 1980s he became a pub landlord and his drinking began in earnest. Eventually his second wife left too, taking their daughter with her, and in 1991 he was forced to leave the pub after the authorities refused to renew his licence. "By this stage, I couldn't stop drinking," he recalled. As soon as I woke up, it was straight for the scotch. In 1994 he was taken to hospital; he weighed only seven stone and was given only a few days to live. He survived the immediate crisis and was discharged to a clinic for brain injuries. His redemption came in the form of a cousin, Rosemary Ellmore, who visited him in hospital. She had not seen him for 20 years and did not recognise him. Yet she took it upon herself to rescue him, giving up work so that she could care for him full time. With her support, Spinks kicked the whisky and began to get his life back. She also began a campaign to get him the MBE that had been awarded to nearly every other British Olympic champion, organising petitions, writing letters and corralling supporters. Her efforts were crowned with success in 2002 when, 45 years after winning Olympic gold, Spinks was appointed MBE in the New Year Honours. He described the visit to Buckingham Palace as one of the proudest moments of his life. The former welterweight champion John H Stracey is said to have burst into tears when he heard the news. Despite his failing health, Spinks remained a fixture at meetings of the London ex-Boxers" Association, of which he was vice-president, and was in great demand at charity functions. "Looking back on what happened to me, I wouldn't change a thing," he said in 2003. If I die tomorrow, I've had a wonderful life. Terry Spinks had a son by his first marriage and a daughter by his second. Terry Spinks, born February 28 1938, died April 26 2012