Dexys Midnight Runners founding member Andy Leek dies at 66 after battle with Parkinson's disease

British singer and Dexys Midnight Runners star Andy Leek has died at the age of 66.

The death of the founding member of the iconic '80s band was confirmed by his wife Deborah Smith Lawrence in a heartbreaking public Facebook post.

Lawrence confirmed that Leek died in hospice care following his lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease that spanned "the best part of two decades".

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"The poet Mary Oliver wrote "Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. And the unimaginable has happened. My beautiful Andy left us on Sunday 3rd November," she wrote in her moving post.

"Mercifully he was held safe at Goscote Hospice, which is the most peaceful place I have known in my entire life. He received truly compassionate and loving care from people there.

"I was with him, by his side in those most fragile last moments and he died as he lived, courageously."

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She called her late partner "a phenomenal person" and said he was "strong and gentle, funny and vulnerable, freedom-loving, fiercely creative".

She said the pair married on October 30, and he died days later on November 3.

"We were together for 35 years and being the bohemian souls we are, felt no need for the convention of marriage. Yet recently we wanted to wed and we were planning a Christmas Wedding," she explained.

"Tragically this was not to be and we were married on 30th October at Walsall Manor. I cannot convey how bittersweet this is, to have married and to have lost the love of my life within one week."

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She added in part of her post: "Equally I have no words to convey the shock and the sorrow I feel, yet I have the enduring love and a lifetime of the most amazing memories of being with such an exquisite man."

"My soulmate, my husband and my best friend. Andy's incredible talent and musical legacy as a poet, songwriter, musician and a world class singer will endure."

Leek was a founding member of the band, known for hits including Come on Eileen, and was the band's pianist before forging a successful solo career.

He left the band as the track Geno topped the charts.

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