Candace Cameron Bure Says Dave Coulier Is Laughing Through Cancer Battle

Candace Cameron Bure has seen firsthand how Dave Coulier isn’t letting his ongoing cancer battle get him down.

“I think a life lesson is just to laugh a lot. We’re seeing that even with Dave Coulier right now — with his cancer diagnosis. He’s laughing his way through it,” Cameron Bure, 48, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing the Great American Family’s Christmas Festival. “And we’re all there laughing along with him in support.”

Cameron Bure praised Coulier’s “great positive outlook” on the situation, adding, “Everyone handles it differently. And Dave is a person where laughter is the best medicine. So we’re doing that along with him and I’m glad.”

After working with Coulier, 65, and the late Bob Saget on Full House as a child, Cameron Bure learned to appreciate laughter even in difficult situations.

“We are a family, it just comes natural [to support each other]. It does,” she added. “So we’ve got the text chain, we call and we get together when we’re in town and when there’s some special event for someone. We just all show up and support each other. … That’s what family does, right? You stick together.”

The Full House cast has remained in each other’s lives since the sitcom, which ran from 1987 to 1995, came to an end. Many of them — including Cameron Bure and Coulier — reunited when the show was revived by Netflix as Fuller House in 2016.

In 2022, the former costars mourned the loss of Saget, who died at age 65 in his Orlando, Florida, hotel room after an accidental fall. They have since publicly supported Coulier after he revealed his stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis earlier this month.

“I went from, I got a little bit of a head cold to I have cancer, and it was pretty overwhelming,” he revealed to People of the “very aggressive” cancer, noting it hadn’t spread to his bone marrow. “At that point, my chances of curable went from something low to [the] 90 percent range. And so that was a great day.”

Coulier recalled how he told his former Full House cast members the news, saying, “I didn’t want them to hear it from someone else, so I sent a text message out. It was just this outpouring of, ‘I will be there. You just name the time, and I know you’re in great hands with [wife Melissa Bring], but what can we do?’ It really is overwhelming the love that we have for each other. We’ve been there for so many years for each other, and it’s pretty remarkable.”

Related: ‘Full House‘ Stars: Then and Now!

You got it, dude! America fell in love with the Tanner family in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and fans celebrated when news broke that the cast would be reuniting for Netflix’s Fuller House — see then-and-now photos!

Coulier’s hopeful approach amid a health scare has been a source of comfort for Cameron Bure. She is familiar with how laughter can help during a difficult time after using her love for Christmas to spread joy to others. Her biggest endeavor has been getting involved with Great American Family, which hasn’t just invested in Christmas movies — but a Christmas festival as well.

With Cameron Bure’s holiday movies, A Christmas Less Traveled and Home Sweet Christmas, being released this season, the actress helped promote the projects at the Christmas festival, which is happening now through December 29 at UBS Arena in New York. Attendees will get the opportunity to enjoy a massive immersive experience featuring celebrities, exclusive screenings, photo opportunities, ice skating, festive craft workshops, holiday-themed culinary delights and beverages, and Santa.

“It’s like being in the park at Christmas time and you can do lots of things with your family. So there’s food and drinks but you can visit Santa and take pictures. The kids can write letters. We’re going to do a little karaoke. We’re going to be previewing our movies and doing Q&As,” Cameron Bure shared with Us. “And then there’s all kinds of fun little things that you can do that the arena has there. So if you’re a hockey player up for some skating outdoors, there’s outdoor ice skating and they’ve got fun other hockey games to do there. But it’s just a great afternoon with your family.”

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi