‘Full House’ Star Dave Coulier on Taking Action in the Face of Cancer

After losing his sister, his niece and his mother to cancer, having a sister who is in remission from cancer and now having faced cancer twice himself, “Full House” actor and comedian Dave Coulier is showing no signs of slowing down.

Coulier, who played Uncle Joey on the classic hit sitcom, announced in late 2025 that he had received an early-stage tongue-cancer diagnosis known as oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, seven months after he shared that he was cancer-free following treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which he had been diagnosed with the previous year.

Coulier, who has become a vocal advocate during his cancer journeys, has launched a digital wellness platform, AwearMarket. He sat down for an interview with CURE, discussing the inspiration he drew from his loved ones who faced cancer before him.

Transcript

This chapter in your life is not a passive one. You're being very active, creating, putting things out there.

I lost my sister, Sharon, I lost my niece, Shannon, and I lost my mother, Arlen, to cancer. My sister, Karen, is in remission from cancer right now. When I looked at the strength and resilience that all of those women in my life have had and have, it gives me strength. And I think, “Man, if I can just have 10% of that kind of strength, I'm going to be fine, being able to fight through this.”

When my niece Shannon was going through chemotherapy, she started a thing in Detroit, called Bras for a Cause, and it's to benefit Gilda’s Club. It's a live event, and it's been going, I want to say 15 years now, where women create bras, and they design them. Breast cancer survivors go on stage, and they do a runway show wearing these bras that are just incredible creations, and people can bid on them and all of the money that they bid to purchase these bras goes directly to Gilda’s Club.

I looked at what my niece was doing as she knew she was dying. I thought, I can do something like that — not that I feel like I'm dying, because my prognosis is really, really good. I just thought I never wanted to be the poster boy for cancer, but if I can encourage people in many ways to get early screenings, to get prostate exams, colonoscopies, breast exams, if I am given this torch right now, then I'm really, really happy if it can help other people.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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