A doctor who specialises in end-of-life care has written a letter to David Bowie thanking the singer for helping him talk with people about the "weighty" subject of death.

Bowie died aged 69 on January 10, after an 18-month cancer battle, surrounded by his family.

In a post on the blogs website of the British Medical Journal, Dr Mark Taubert, palliative care consultant at Velindre NHS Trust in Cardiff, wrote:

"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.

Referring to one cancer patient, who had been told she would not live much longer than a year, Dr Taubert said Bowie's story had helped her express "the vision she had of her own dying moments".

"She too, had memories of places and events for which you provided an idiosyncratic soundtrack. And then we talked about a good death, the dying moments and what these typically look like", he added.

Dr Taubert also said one of the last images of the musician in "a sharp suit" before he died, would help people deal with the idea that the last weeks of life have to be about "scary monsters".

Dr Taubert's letter seems to have been appreciated by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones.

Since confirming his father's death on January 11, his only update has been a retweet of a link to the letter by palliative care charity Marie Curie.