Olympic legend delivers his own eulogy
<p>Mourners were brought to tears during the emotional funeral for Australian Olympic legend Dean Woods, who delivered his own eulogy. </p>
<p>The track cyclist died in early March after a long battle with lung cancer at 55 years old. </p>
<p>Knowing his fate, the sportsman and father decided to address his wife and children, along with the congregation at the Wangaratta Performing Arts and Convention Centre, in a pre-recorded message while wearing the same suit he was to be buried in. </p>
<p>His wife and three kids has not previously seen the video before it was shown at the funeral, resulting in emotional scenes for the family. </p>
<p>"I'm well prepared, even though I'm in the box in front of you," he said.</p>
<p>"This will be the suit I'll be put in the box in. (I've) even got the torch ... in there just in case it gets dark."</p>
<p>"Now for me, to say to Meagan and the kids that I'm going out for a two hour ride, and not coming back - now that's a tragedy."</p>
<p>Speaking to the <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HSWEB_WRE170_a&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Fleader%2Falbury-wodonga%2Fdean-woods-olympic-legend-brings-audience-to-tears-with-selfread-eulogy%2Fnews-story%2F4bae63017940783605fe46082b383f9e&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=dynamic-warm-control-score&V21spcbehaviour=append" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Herald Sun</a>, Dean's widow Meagan said her and her kids were "devastated".</p>
<p>She said, "We're going home tomorrow and I think that's when the reality will hit. Especially for myself and the girls, because we have had such a wonderful distraction."</p>
<p>"I think once we get back home and into the swing of things, the silence will be deafening."</p>
<p>Dean's service began with footage of Woods and his teammates clinching gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and ended with a tribute from Meagan, his wife of 28 years. </p>
<p><strong>Extract of Dean Woods' eulogy</strong></p>
<p>"Hello ladies and gentlemen … it's a bit of a sad occasion.</p>
<p>I've had a pretty extraordinary life, it's pretty hard for anyone to document that in a simple form, so the best person to do it is me.</p>
<p>First of all, today is a sad day, but for me this is just my process with the whole cancer deal.</p>
<p>It's not a tragedy, and I saw that for the reason I've spent so much time riding my bike throughout the world, had a lot of near misses, but never had any serious accidents.</p>
<p>Now for me, to say to Meagan and the kids that I'm going out for a two hour ride, and not coming back – now that's a tragedy, because everything was fine.</p>
<p>I've been fortunate enough, and I do say fortunate enough, to be able to have the time to put a few things in place, to get a few things sorted.</p>
<p>Even though, two years ago when I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer … So the main issue was in the lungs.</p>
<p>Which, when you consider someone who's spent 40 years with their lungs in their profession keeping you fit and healthy, it's just one of those things.</p>
<p>But I've never once and never will say: 'Why me? Why me?'</p>
<p>It's not who I am, and it's not the way to deal with it.</p>
<p>It's like if I won 50 billion in the Lotto, would I be saying: 'Why me? Why me?'</p>
<p>Absolutely not. So you take the goods with the bads. And that's what I've been able to do.</p>
<p>I owe a massive amount of what I know to high performance sport.</p>
<p>I've been fortunate enough to be able to put myself through many arduous situations.</p>
<p>And you still have that commitment to keep going.</p>
<p>There's never that moment you want to stop, even though it does creep in, but you know there's an end goal.</p>
<p>And the end goal is to keep going and push through.</p>
<p>So even from a young age I've been very fortunate to have those experiences which have served me really well in my two terms of cancer."</p>
<p><em>Image credits: Dean Woods</em></p>
