Tragic final bow: Voice star performs last gig after devastating cance | UK | News
Dean Franklin (Image: Kieran Cleeves)
A beloved singer, songwriter and street performer played his final concert and moved hundreds of fans to tears after being told he had late-stage cancer.
Dean Franklin, 36, a former The Voice contestant and mentor to singer and television star Paloma Faith, performed for the last time at London’s Piccadilly Circus last Sunday after being diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer, which had spread to his liver.
The singer, who lives in Finsbury Park, north London, has made music her livelihood, performing in the capital for almost a decade; but now she faces months of brutal chemotherapy just to relieve her symptoms.
Dean Franklin with his mother after the show (Image: Dean Franklin)
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Father-of-one Dean was diagnosed on December 9 last year after months of treatment for acid reflux, a condition that affects his voice but masks the real danger.
“I kept going to the doctor,” he said. “The medicine didn’t work. Then I started having pain under my ribs, in my liver. That’s when everything changed.”
He was rushed to Homerton Hospital, where he was given urgent tests and given devastating news: he has multiple tumors in his liver and the pain is spreading to his back.
Dean, who is now under the care of a leading cancer specialist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, has been told chemotherapy could give him around a year to live, with possible clinical trials subject to further testing.
She is currently on morphine for her pain, has jaundice, and is preparing for her next round of chemotherapy next weekend.
Dean surrounded by family in hospital (Image: Dean Franklin)
Deciding that he now needed to focus on treatment, Dean made the heartbreaking decision to give up performing well.
More than 300 people packed Piccadilly Circus to see her sing for the last time; some fly in from Spain, Switzerland and all over Europe; There are also couples she sang to at their weddings abroad.
The crowd cried, filmed and sang along as Dean closed with Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Strangers hugged her as she stood under the lights, visibly weak but smiling. One fan said through tears: “Look what one person can do.”
“It was very impressive,” Dean said. “These people became a part of my life.”
Dean Franklin Piccadilly Circus 11.01.26 (Image: Kieran Cleeves)
Dean Franklin’s mother and brother watch him sing (Image: Kieran Cleeves)
Crowd watching Dean at Piccadilly Circus (Image: Kieran Cleeves)
The emotional performance was also a fundraiser; not for treatment, but to secure the future of his family, including his 17-year-old daughter Mya Hyndman and her mother.
£25,000 has been raised so far, helping to ensure they are supported when they can no longer work.
“Singing was my income. Music was my life,” Dean said. “This was about trying to make sure my family was going to be okay.”
Dean Franklin with his daughter 11.01.26 (Image: Kieran Cleeves)
Dean with daughter Mya Hyndman (Image: Dean Franklin)
Even now, Dean is still struggling; not just with cancer, but for the future of street music in London.
He spoke out against Westminster Council, which cracked down on buskers in central London over noise complaints.
“A lot of iconic courses are gone,” he said.
Last year, the council took him to court for performing in an unlicensed area; They lost that case, but Dean was still ordered to pay £250 of the costs, which fans quickly obliged.
“When you look at everything that’s going on on the streets of London, the targeting of buskers is mind-boggling,” he said.
