Dean Franklin was a father and just 37-years-old when he passed away
A singer has passed away from stage four cancer which was reportedly misdiagnosed as heartburn. Dean Boroczky, also known as Dean Franklin, starred on The Voice UK and sadly died on Saturday (February 7) at just 37-years-old.
The crooner had performed around the world from busking in Plymouth and London, to paid performances across Europe. PlymouthLive reports the father-of-one from Plymouth was experiencing discomfort, and visited his doctor.
He was reportedly told he had heartburn, given some medication and sent away. It turns out however he had Stage Four oesophageal cancer.
Now Dean’s mum, Marie Boroczky, has sadly confirmed that the rising star died just eight weeks after his delayed diagnosis. Marie said: “He always had a passion for music.
“He won us holidays as a child, he’d performed at Music of the Night and we’d get to go along. My daughter and I were visiting him in Worthing one day and there was an open mic stage.
“We pushed him into getting up and singing. When he used to sing he’d get really into it.
“He had his eyes closed and would be lost in the moment. When he opened his eyes, there was a huge crowd, the people who organised it were like, ‘wow’.
“From there, he got scouted to go on The Voice UK, that would have been about 2016. He got through, went through all the stages, and got two turns from Ricky Wilson and Paloma Faith.
“He was a huge fan of Paloma so went on her team. He got to the final eight.
“We were all so proud of him. It was an amazing experience, watching him and meeting all those people.
“Paloma had a bit of a soft spot for Dean. She kept in touch and even reached out after his diagnosis.”
Just weeks before his death Dean, who has a 17-year-old daughter, Mya, performed to hundreds of fans in London in a “highly emotional” open-air performance, in one last determined display of his love for singing.
Dean lived a healthy life until last year when he started to feel pain. He had visited his GP about the issue many times but Marie said he was repeatedly brushed off, with the doctor suggesting he had heartburn.
On December 9 the pain became so severe that he checked himself into A&E, believing he must have something more serious such as gallstones.
Marie continued: “They sent him down for an ultrasound and he asked if it was gallstones and the ultrasound person said, ‘we need to get another doctor’ as they’d found masses in the liver.
“The doctor came and told him they couldn’t confirm at that stage what it was and he would need an endoscopy the following day. On December 10, he had the endoscopy, and from that they took lots of biopsies and told him there and then, which was an error on their part.
“They gave him the pieces of paper with graphic images of his tumours and it said malignant oesophageal cancer metastasised Stage Four.”
She said Dean was given the shocking diagnosis with no support except for his sister Leanne who was with him, though his mum travelled up to London that same day. He faced an agonising wait to see an oncologist at St Bart’s Hospital on December 29.
Dean, Marie, and the rest of his family tried to enjoy Christmas as best they could but all the while Dean was experiencing more and more pain. Marie continued: “His sister and I accompanied him for the oncologist’s appointment, and they confirmed that he had Stage Four cancer that had metastasised to his liver and primary lymph nodes, and that they would be starting chemo.
“There was a chance he could have immunotherapy and a professor was doing clinical trials, so we discussed all those things. He knew there was no cure, we were told he could have 12 months if the chemo was successful.
“He was due to start that chemo on January 22, however, he started getting more symptoms. He was constantly in pain and the hospital arranged for him to have more medication, morphine and things like that, and while I was with him then, I noticed that he’d developed jaundice and said I think we need to contact someone.
“He was told that the jaundice was progressing quite rapidly due to liver failure. The professor got him in earlier for urgent chemotherapy. That started on January 7.
“He went in, and because it had progressed quite a lot, they could only give him 50 per cent of that chemotherapy because of the potential damage to his liver.”
Sadly, despite the prognosis of 12 months and the emergency chemotherapy, Dean passed away on Saturday (February 7) just eight weeks after his diagnosis. Marie added: “He took his diagnosis with courage and spirit and strength, and a real fight within him that he was going to beat this.
“When he was told he had 12 months if chemo was successful, he wanted to focus on that, but he wanted to get this message out – he had no symptoms prior. He kept getting diagnosed with heartburn.
“It’s such an underestimated disease, especially considering his age. He’d go to the doctor and they’d give him medicine for heartburn.
“He was getting pains in his stomach and they didn’t link it at all. It really wasn’t picked up.
“As the oncologist told us, because of his age, you’d usually present to the GP with difficulty swallowing. It’s very unrecognised in GPs to push forward for tests because of his age.
“He wanted to raise awareness, he felt that something wasn’t quite right, but he wasn’t listened to. The oncologist said that there was no genetic link to the cancer; the cancer was caused by acid reflux.
“It’s very unknown, until we travelled this path with Dean, we weren’t aware of it. It’s really opened our eyes.
“There’s very little awareness of how prominent it can be. The last few years he’d been going to the doctors with heartburn.
“If it had been picked up sooner, it could have gone differently. He could have been fast-tracked. It was just too late when he was diagnosed.
“As a family we will continue to try to raise awareness and I have been in contact with Heartburn Cancer UK. There was an error with the biopsies too, because it was the Christmas period.
“They were delayed, and the doctors kept saying they were chasing it. Later, they said an error had been made because it was Christmas, that’s why there was a delay.
“We didn’t feel like it was picked up on soon enough.”
Despite being on emergency chemotherapy and struggling with constant pain, Dean was determined to perform one last time, and he notified his fans that he would perform an impromptu open-air concert at Piccadilly Circus in London. While Dean only wanted to perform for the love of it, he was in for another surprise.
Marie continued: “He came out of hospital on January 10 and on January 11 went to Piccadilly Circus because he was adamant he was going to do it even if he had to be wheeled down in a wheelchair.
“There were hundreds of people there, he left a legacy that has gone far beyond the UK – literally around the world. He’s managed to do so much before all this, people travelled from Switzerland and Spain to be at that open-air performance, to watch him busk – he didn’t expect so many people.
“I’d say there were 2-300 people watching. He managed to do five different songs.
“He did Tom Odell’s Heal, which meant quite a lot to him. He did Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, Amy Winehouse’s Back to black, James Blunt’s Goodbye My Lover, and he sang Blower’s Daughter by Damien Rice for me.
“That was our song, from right in the early days when he started performing. It was highly emotional.
“The crowds were crying. He was surrounded by so much love.”
Dean’s funeral will take place in Plymouth once arrangements have been made and at a later date a celebration of his life will be arranged in London.
To donate to Dean’s GoFundMe, a portion of which will be donated to Heartburn Cancer UK, please click here.
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