The tragic star was backed by Paloma Faith on The Voice UK and performed around the world before his death just eight weeks after his cancer diagnosis ‘with courage and spirit’
A singer who appeared on The Voice and won the support of Paloma Faith has tragically passed away following a cancer misdiagnosis.
Dean Boroczky, performing under the stage name Dean Franklin, was a gifted musician whose career took him across the globe – from busking on the streets of Plymouth and London to paid gigs throughout Europe, reports Plymouth Live..
Towards the end of last year, Dean, a father of one from Plymouth, consulted his GP after experiencing discomfort. He was reportedly diagnosed with heartburn, prescribed medication and discharged.
However, it later transpired that he was suffering from Stage Four oesophageal cancer. His mother, Marie Boroczky, has now heartbreakingly confirmed that the promising artist passed away on Saturday aged 37, merely eight weeks following his belated diagnosis.
Marie recalled: “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 passing, Dean, who has a 17 year old daughter, Mya, took to the stage in London to perform before hundreds of fans in a “highly emotional” open-air gig, demonstrating one final defiant act of his passion for singing.
Dean had maintained a healthy lifestyle until last year when pain began to trouble him. Despite multiple visits to his GP about the discomfort, Marie explained he was consistently dismissed, with the doctor putting it down to heartburn.
The pain escalated to such severity on 9 December that he admitted himself to A&E, convinced it must be something more serious, such as gallstones.
Marie went on: “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 revealed that Dean received the devastating diagnosis with minimal support, apart from his sister Leanne who accompanied him, though his mum made the journey to London that very day. He then endured an excruciating wait to meet an oncologist at St Bart’s Hospital on December 29.
Dean, Marie, and his family did their best to salvage some Christmas cheer, but throughout this time Dean’s pain continued to intensify.
Marie went on: “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.”
Tragically, despite being given 12 months and receiving emergency chemotherapy, Dean died on Saturday (February 7) just eight weeks following his diagnosis.
Marie said: “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 undergoing emergency chemotherapy and battling constant pain, Dean was resolute in his decision to perform one last time, announcing to his fans that he would hold an impromptu open-air concert at Piccadilly Circus in London.
But Dean was in for another surprise beyond just performing for the sheer joy of it.
Marie went on: “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 be held in Plymouth once arrangements have been finalised, and a celebration of his life will be organised in London at a later date.
To contribute to Dean’s GoFundMe, a portion of which will be donated to Heartburn Cancer UK, please click here.
