Eastmond suffered from Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone and soft tissue cancer.
Dean wrote in a HISKIND article: ‘I was diagnosed with soft tissue cancer in my rib (Ewing’s Sarcoma) after getting myself an Uber to the closest A&E thinking I had a broken rib after a large lump the size of a grapefruit appeared on the right hand side of my chest.
‘Fickle and naive, being told there and then that this wasn’t a broken rib, but a cyst or a tumour saw a terrified Dean breaking down in the A&E waiting area, unable to decide whether to call his boyfriend or mother first.
‘After a needle biopsy, I was diagnosed,’ he wrote.
After a year of battling cancer, some hope. Troye Sivan reached out and offered to pay for a cancer treatment.
In a post on HISKIND’s website, the magazine Eastmond edits, he explained how the singer came across these tweets:
‘Troye and I have kind of known each other for a few years.
‘We used to chat a little bit online in the past and mutually followed each other since, but nothing particularly more. (Apart from me obviously fancying him way too much as a young gay guy coming out circa 2013 and being a supporter of his music.)
‘Troye had offered, there and then, to completely cover the cost of this alternative treatment.
‘Within minutes, he had lived up to his offer and donated thousands in the blink of an eye. (much to my awe, amazement and slight embarrassment) before popping off to sleep.’
But as the cancer worsened, so did his hopes of recovery. Then Charlie Hides stepped in.
The contestant on the ninth season of Drag Race caught wind of Eastmond’s condition and a few days after Eastmond’s update, Hides offered to paint his face.
Since the day out together, Hides started a hash tag trend and got more Drag Race queens involved.
Sharon Needles, Jinkx Monsoon, Shangela, amongst a host of other queens, took photos of themselves with signs that read: ‘Dean Eastmond slays.’
A brave, young, beautiful voice has been lost to his family, friends and community.
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