Bowie's son shares thank you from palliative care doctor

Director Duncan Jones returned to social media to retweet a thank you letter to his late father David Bowie from a palliative care doctor. Photo / Getty

Duncan Jones has returned to social media for the first time since the death of his father David Bowie.

The Moon film-maker announced last week he would be "offline for a while" following the passing of the legendary singer - who died of cancer on January 10 - but came back to Twitter to share a letter written to the Fashion singer by a palliative care doctor.

Duncan didn't comment directly, but retweeted a link posted by the Marie Curie organisation to a letter from Dr. Mark Taubert, who wrote about how Bowie's private cancer battle helped him ease the concerns of a dying patient.

A thank you letter to David Bowie from a palliative care doctor. https://t.co/ibFYRY8wc1 - thanks for sharing @DrMarkTaubert

— Marie Curie (@mariecurieuk) January 17, 2016

At one point he wrote: "At the beginning of that week I had a discussion with a hospital patient, facing the end of her life.

"We discussed your death and your music, and it got us talking about numerous weighty subjects, that are not always straightforward to discuss with someone facing their own demise. In fact, your story became a way for us to communicate very openly about death, something many doctors and nurses struggle to introduce as a topic of conversation."

The letter was littered with references to the singer's lyrics and also included a number of thank yous to Bowie.

Of his final album, Blackstar, the doctor wrote: "Thank you for Lazarus and Blackstar. I am a palliative care doctor, and what you have done in the time surrounding your death has had a profound effect on me and many people I work with.

"Your album is strewn with references, hints and allusions. As always, you don't make interpretation all that easy, but perhaps that isn't the point."

The open letter concluded with the physician explaining how Bowie's passing helped his patient think about her "own dying moments".

He wrote: "We both wondered who may have been around you when you took your last breath and whether anyone was holding your hand.

"I believe this was an aspect of the vision she had of her own dying moments that was of utmost importance to her, and you gave her a way of expressing this most personal longing to me, a relative stranger."

-Bang! Showbiz