Kelly Holmes: My family values

The former Olympic athlete talks about being in a children’s home growing up and her mum hyperventilating when she won gold in Athens

My first memory is watching my mum and my grandfather on TV. They went on the Generation Game. They didn’t do very well – ended up with a clock.

My mum was 17 when she had me. I don’t really know my natural father. He left before I was even one. We were living in a village in Kent and back then a single white mother with a mixed-race girl … It was hard for my mum. But she’s strong. I went into a children’s home a couple of times, when I was three or four. My mum doesn’t like to talk about it. I wasn’t in there that long and at that age, those things don’t really faze you that much.

I call my stepfather, Mick, my dad. He brought me up from the age of four, and had my brothers Kevin and Stewart with my mum. We lived on a council estate and were just a normal working-class family. My general perception, growing up, was that you need to work hard to get anything in life. From a really young age, I learned to stand on my own two feet.

I used to mother my brothers and change their nappies when they were babies – I’m eight years older than Kevin and 10 years older than Stewart. I’d say I taught them to ride a bike, but I didn’t, I’d just push them and let go, and they’d crash into a wall. Pretty quickly, they learned to ride!

I started my running career when I was 12. I was lucky that my family was very supportive – my parents would take me to athletics heats and my grandparents used to take me to cross country. They’d stand there freezing to death every weekend. No matter what, I knew that my family would be there for me.

My grandad died when I was 16. I was devastated. I remember it vividly because my mum, who was only 33, was so upset. I think it was his heart. We don’t really talk about things like that in our family.

I didn’t know my sister Lisa until I was a teenager. She’s my natural father’s daughter and is only two years younger than me. We got on brilliantly, like we’d always been together, and now we’re very, very close.

All my family used to come and watch my big meets. My dad, who’s a painter and decorator, would drive up in this massive van that was so embarrassing. I remember winning the National Championships, signing autographs for fans outside the stadium and then having to quickly jump in the back of his horrible clapped-out banger down a side road so no one would see me.

When I was made a dame, I picked my mum, dad and grandad up in a limo from their council estate and took them to Buckingham Palace with me, to go and see the Queen. It was quite surreal.

I’ve never been maternal and I’m way too old and independent to have kids now. And far too selfish. I’m very happy I have five nieces and two nephews, but I’m also happy that I can hand them back to their parents.

My family were watching at home when I won in Athens. I got my mum on the phone, and all she was doing was screaming, screaming, screaming – and hyperventilating. My family had lived the ups and downs of my career with me so when I achieved my ultimate dream to become an Olympic champion, I think they achieved it with me, emotionally.

To celebrate my gold, they got completely drunk. I remember getting ready for my next race, thinking, uh, I can’t celebrate yet, and them phoning me, absolutely paralytic, talking stupid and just screaming the whole time. I finally had to say, “Phone me back tomorrow!”