The sounds of motocross bikes echoed around Beccles as family and friends gathered to say goodbye to rider Tom Pattison.
At a service held yesterday to celebrate his life, dozens of motocross riders arrived on their bikes, honouring their friend by revving their engines ahead of the service and wearing special shirts bearing his number 183.
Mourners entered St Michael’s Church to Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl.
Leading the service Bishop Gavin Reid said: “I can see a better time, when all our dreams come true,” repeating the song’s lyrics. “It’s hard to see that better time today.
“There’s a bit in the Bible that says something about today. It says this, ‘You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes’.
“No there’s nothing good about today, but if it teaches us all one lesson then something has come out of it, and that lesson is that our lives are just a passing thing and we cannot count on them going on forever. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
“Live each day making the most of each day. Tom did that. He loved his family, he loved and married the girl he met in his teens, he loved his daughter Poppy.
“He may not have had many days to live, but Tom made the most of it.”
There were readings on behalf of Mr Pattison’s parents, who described him as their “sunshine” and his two sisters, who said they were “incredibly close” to him and that the three were “the best of friends”.
Friends shared their memories and a poem was read on behalf of his wife Rachael before the hundreds of people at the service had the chance to hear Mr Pattison’s voice again as a short clip of him was played.
After a moment of silence, mourners gathered outside to watch the motocross riders rev their engines again and do a lap of the church as the funeral procession made its way to the crematorium.
Mr Pattison, 23, was competing in the Eastern Centre Motocross Championship at Blaxhall in Suffolk on September 13 when he came off his bike and died.
Hundreds of people gathered for a special motocross meeting in his memory at Blythburgh motocross track on September 20 and a Just Giving fund in aid of Mr Pattison’s family has raised almost £6,000.
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