Grief at the death of French concert organist, aged 42

The internationally-toured French organist Eric Dalest has died aged 42, leaving thee small sons.

The last message on his website reads: All concerts are deleted because of my cancer.

There will be a funeral mass in Marseille on Wednesday at 10 am at the church of Notre-Dame d’Eoures.

Two years ago, he wrote: ‘Since 2013 I have cancer of the intestine and peritoneum. I underwent 15 chemotherapies and 7 surgeries in 2014. We just detected a recurrence last December. So I am treating chemotherapy again. I wrote a book called “Beating, Fighting, Surviving” explaining how I manage to hold despite the hardships. I am 40 years old, I have 3 children who are 6,9 and 12 years old. My first 2 children have lost their mother in 2012 of breast cancer …’