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Singer and The Voice star Dean Franklin has died aged 36, just eight weeks after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.
A musician and street performer hailing from London, Franklin appeared on the singing competition series in 2016, where he was mentored by “New York” singer Paloma Faith.
In mid December, Franklin publicly announced that he was beginning chemotherapy after being diagnosed with stage four oesophageal cancer.
On Monday (9 January), his mother Marie shared news on Facebook that Franklin had died on Sunday (8 February) night, eight and a half weeks after his diagnosis.
“As a family we are truly heartbroken to announce that our precious boy who fought so courageously over 8 weeks and 3 days passed over at 21.39pm last night…” she wrote.
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Franklin died on Sunday night, eight weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer (Instagram)
“He was surrounded by love. I have been getting [messages] from people this morning and wanted as his ma to manifest my son’s courage to share with you all… As a family we will post in more length when we are able. Until then please know that the love you gave to our Dean and all of us has meant so very much.”
On 16 December, Franklin posted a video to his 30,000 Instagram followers announcing that he had been diagnosed with stage four cancer and would be starting a “quite aggressive” form of treatment “very, very quickly”. In a follow-up video posted two weeks later, he explained that the cancer was not curable.
Franklin is survived by his 17-year-old daughter.
This is a breaking news story – more information to follow…
