Olympic legend delivers his own eulogy
Mourners were brought to tears during the emotional funeral for Australian Olympic legend Dean Woods, who delivered his own eulogy.
The track cyclist died in early March after a long battle with lung cancer at 55 years old.
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.
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.
"I'm well prepared, even though I'm in the box in front of you," he said.
"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."
"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."
Speaking to the Herald Sun, Dean's widow Meagan said her and her kids were "devastated".
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."
"I think once we get back home and into the swing of things, the silence will be deafening."
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.
Extract of Dean Woods' eulogy
"Hello ladies and gentlemen … it's a bit of a sad occasion.
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.
First of all, today is a sad day, but for me this is just my process with the whole cancer deal.
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.
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.
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.
Even though, two years ago when I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer … So the main issue was in the lungs.
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.
But I've never once and never will say: 'Why me? Why me?'
It's not who I am, and it's not the way to deal with it.
It's like if I won 50 billion in the Lotto, would I be saying: 'Why me? Why me?'
Absolutely not. So you take the goods with the bads. And that's what I've been able to do.
I owe a massive amount of what I know to high performance sport.
I've been fortunate enough to be able to put myself through many arduous situations.
And you still have that commitment to keep going.
There's never that moment you want to stop, even though it does creep in, but you know there's an end goal.
And the end goal is to keep going and push through.
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."
Image credits: Dean Woods