“Disability is relative to the task”

Marc Woods holds up his Olympic gold medal with Taylorians

If one did not possess any prior knowledge of Marc Woods, one would not have guessed that he wore a prosthetic leg below the knee.

Many students gaped in surprise when they walked into the lecture theatre for Woods’s “Personal Best” talk on March 25.

Standing tall at the front of the stage, Woods charismatically shared with students his experiences surviving cancer and overcoming obstacles to reach the top; all along injecting his speech with thought-provoking insights on personal responsibility, leadership, teamwork and motivation.

Woods was merely 17 when he had his left leg amputated below the knee due to cancer.

However, that did not deter him from representing Great Britain in their Paralympic Swimming Team just 18 months after completing chemotherapy. While he was there, he secured two gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals.

“For someone who was very, very ill, 18 months later, I was representing my country. I was winning medals. More importantly, I was representing my family. It was a huge moment for me,” Woods said.

A major highlight during the talk was when Woods shared with audiences how a seven-year-old once asked him what it was like to be disabled during his visit to a junior school.

He responded by asking them who the most disabled person in the room was to which they all replied that it was him since he only had one leg.

“Okay, and who’s the fastest swimmer in this room?” Woods continued.

“Well you are, you’ve got a gold medal,” the kids replied. “Fine, so who’s disabled at swimming? Me or you?” he retorted.

The central point Woods wanted to stress was that disability is relative to the task.

“We’re all good at some things and we’re all not so good or ‘disabled’ at other things,” explained Woods.

Woods’s parting advice for students was for them to adopt positive attitudes in facing any situation and to choose to be exceptional in all aspects of their lives.

“Sometimes you’re faced with challenges that you would never choose to do, that are just put in your way and you can’t do anything about it. But what you can do is choose your behaviour.”

(By Florence Song)