Dave Coulier recently announced that he is suffering from stage three non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Photo / Getty Images
Dave Coulier recently announced that he is suffering from stage three non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Photo / Getty Images
Full House actor Dave Coulier has revealed he has made peace with the fact that this “could be the end” after his cancer diagnosis.
The 65-year-old actor, best known for starring as Joey Gladstone on the sitcom Full House, recently announced he was suffering from stage three non-Hodgkinlymphoma. He said he had already had an “incredible life” and had come to terms with the idea of death.
He told Today.com: “I told [wife] Melissa I don’t know why, but I [am] OK with whatever the news [is] going to be, no matter how devastating. I can’t explain where that came from.
“I’ve had an incredible life.
“I’ve had the most amazing people in my life. This has been an extraordinary journey, and I’m OK if this is the end of the journey.”
The 65-year-old actor (fourth from left) is best known for starring as Joey Gladstone on the classic sitcom Full House.
But when Coulier first received his diagnosis, he admitted it felt as if he had been “punched in the stomach” and had never imagined it happening to him.
“The first thing I said to them was, ‘Wait a minute – cancer?’ I was feeling like I got punched in the stomach because it never happens to you.
“You always hear about it happening to someone else.”
Coulier was diagnosed in October after an upper respiratory infection led to swelling in his lymph nodes. Medics immediately conducted PET and CT scans and a biopsy.
A test for cancer cells within his bone marrow came back negative, increasing his hopes of survival.
The Surreal Life star has been married to Melissa Bring for a decade. He was previously married to Jayne Modean and has a 24-year-old son, Luc, with her.
He said: “We all kind of put our heads together and said, ‘Okay, where are we going?’ And they had a very specific plan for how they were going to treat this.
“At that point, [when the test came back negative] my chances of curable went from something low to 90% range. And so that was a great day.”
He started chemotherapy two weeks after his diagnosis and shaved his head as a “pre-emptive strike” so he could tackle the ordeal “head-on”.
Speaking on the Full House Rewind podcast, he told co-host Marla Sokoloff: “I started the podcast wearing a hat, and I said, I’ve always been a man of many hats, but this hat has special significance because a couple of weeks ago, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“That was really a conscious decision of, I’m going to meet this head-on, and I want people to know it’s my life. I’m not going to try and hide anything. I would rather talk about it and open the discussion and inspire people.”
