Sorry I've been gone for so long, I've been a bit busy in the last 6-8 months.  My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer – guess it’s a forgone conclusion when you smoke for 62 years. Fast as my dad was (and he’s up there in the super dad category) he couldn’t dodge that bullet.  When I first started my research he would just nod at me in his fatherly way and pass by with his coffee, as he headed to his man-cave.  Later when the cancer took a tighter grip, he’d sit and watch me as I wrestled with my research. Just knowing he was around to answer questions seemed to make him feel part of what I was doing. Gradually he lost the endurance to do even that. Dad was there when I made my first phone calls, and started building up the material on each rider. I’d get all excited and tell him about my new discoveries … He on the other hand would recall the names and exploits of riders he knew, (which while interesting wasn’t all that helpful as  none of them died during their careers) but it was something we shared.

     During one of his last stays at hospice, he looked over at me and randomly told me to “finish it” …  I didn’t know what he was on about and then he said  … “the jockeys” At that point I hadn’t touched anything for months. I was stunned that amongst the pain, and there was lots of pain by then, that he thought about my project.  I promised him that I would keep going … and I will.  This is the first time I’m doing it without him. I miss him so much and I can only hope that each of these riders had someone who loved them and grieved for them the way my siblings and I are grieving for our dad. I intend to make sure our generations don’t forget my dad either, I couldn’t have wished for a better Dad, a better friend and a greater inspiration.

Eugene Alexander Chan : 16 February 1930 – 19 March 2012

My Dad being cheeky to the camera