Having finished a swimming practice, Du Toit was riding to school on her scooter when, out of nowhere, she was hit by a car. Du Toit was badly injured from the accident and rushed to hospital.

It was here that the full extent of the accident was revealed and doctors decided they must amputate her badly damaged left leg at the knee in order to save her life. Du Toit managed to survive after a week in intensive care but it appeared her promising swimming career was over before it had ever really had the chance to begin. She was completely written off by almost everybody except herself.

Du Toit put all her effort into her rehabilitation and within three months she was not only walking again with the aid of a prosthetic limb, but back in the swimming pool practising. Her new aim was to compete in the disability swimming events at the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Du Toit not only achieved this goal, she shot to international stardom by storming to two gold medals and two world records at the competition just over a year after the accident that had almost cost her life.

It was not this feat that made her a global sensation though, it was the fact that she qualified for the 800m able-bodied freestyle final in Manchester - swimming without the aid of a prosthetic limb - to become the first athlete with a disability to qualify for the final of an able-bodied event.

At the closing of the Manchester Commonwealth Games, she was presented with the first David Dixon Award for Outstanding Athlete of the Games and the rest, as they say, is history.

The new superstar of Paralympic sport went to the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games where she picked up an astonishing five gold medals. Two years later at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, Du Toit repeated her Manchester 2002 performance by winning the same two golds she had won in England and just a few months later she claimed six golds at the IPC World Swimming Championships.

In 2008, Du Toit broke down yet another major barrier between able-bodied and disabled athletes as she qualified for the women's 10 kilometres open water race at the Beijing Olympics by finishing fourth over the distance at the World Championships in Spain.

Du Toit finished 16th in the Olympics before going on to dominate the Paralympics in the Chinese capital where she claimed another five gold medals. Numerous awards headed in her direction, including the prestigious 2010 Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability for "breaking down the barriers between disabled and able-bodied sport".

But seemingly with the ability to dominate competition for many more years to come, du Toit has somewhat surprisingly decided that the London 2012 Games - where she will be only 28-year-old and still in her prime - will be her swansong.

That leaves us with less than two more years to enjoy watching arguably the greatest Paralympic swimmer of all time, but Du Toit feels she has very little left achieve and admits she cannot go on forever.

"I swim in so many events, from sprints to marathons, that it feels like I am training or competing nearly all the time," Du Toit told me as we spoke not long after the conclusion of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games where she unsurprisingly claimed three gold medals out of a possible three.

"I may be relatively young but I've been around for quite a while now and that has definitely taken its toll on me. After London 2012, I really just want to retire so I can bow out on my own terms and end on a high.

"Also, I've pretty much achieved everything I set out to achieve when I took up Paralympic swimming.

"One of my biggest goals was to compete at the Olympic Games, to show that a Paralympian could do it, and I achieved that dream in the 10k open water race in Beijing. I must admit though, I would love to compete at one more Olympic 10km race in London just to prove that Beijing was no fluke and that I really do belong there.

"That's why the London 2012 Olympics are such a huge goal for me. The London 2012 Paralympics will also be massive as they will be the last competition I ever take part in, but the Olympics are the big challenge."

The strange thing about Du Toit is that she is remarkably grounded for someone who has achieved so much success. She is an undoubted superstar but without superstar attitude and she revealed that when the curtain draws on her remarkable career in London, she doesn't want to be remembered as a legend but as a working class girl who tried to play her part helping move the Paralympic Movement forward.

"After London, I hope people who look back on my career and what I have done simply see someone who worked really hard - someone who had a dream and went for it," she explained.

"You know, I don't come from a wealthy background where I was given everything. I've just worked really hard to achieve what I've done and I wouldn't have had it any other way because that has made me the person I am.


"My family and friends have been such a support and comfort for me along the way and that is the source of my inspiration rather than anything else. I've had nothing handed to me on a silver platter but rather gone out and earned it. That is important and I hope that is what people take from me when they look at me.

"But one of the biggest joys has been being a part of the Paralympic Movement. It is a truly amazing thing to be a part of and I'm very proud to have helped as an ambassador for it.

"I hope that I have done the Paralympic Movement proud by going out there and competing as hard as I can in able-bodied and disabled competition. That is something I will strive to do over the next two years right up to the London 2012 Games.

"After that, it is time for a new chapter in my life, but I think I will be able to look back on what I have done with some pride."

Of that, there is no doubt at all.

Tom Degus in the Paralympics correspondent for insideworldparasport