Full House star Dave Coulie reveals stage three cancer diagnosis during live TV appearance

A star of US sitcom has revealed he's been diagnosed with 'aggressive' blood cancer.

- who many know as character Joey Gladstone - made the shock announcement during a live appearance on America's Today show. The 65-year-old shared he only found out about his diagnosis five weeks ago after finding a ' ball size' lump in his groin area, which he initially thought was down to a cold.

But when the lump grew in a matter of days, doctors did further tests and he's now been diagnosed with Stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In the past few weeks, he's had three operations and is now undergoing chemotherapy.

Sharing his secret health battle, Dave admitted: "It's been a rollercoaster ride for sure." Describing the moment doctors told him he had cancer as a 'gut punch', he said doctors told him they had "biopsied it, took it out, and said, 'we wish we had better news for you but you have B cell lymphoma, we need to get you into chemotherapy right away.'"

The situation unfolded so quickly, Dave said his wife Melissa didn't believe he had cancer at first. He continued: "Once that settled in, that was a gut punch. But there was still another hurdle, we had to find out what the staging was so they went into my bone marrow and we got good news that day that it had not spread."

Luckily this means the cancer Dave has is more than 90 percent treatable and he hopes to be in remission by next year, following his treatment. His second round of chemo is due to take place in February, so he will await further test results after that.

Before the first round of chemo, Dave revealed how he'd shaved his head and joked he looked like a 'baby bird'. "I fit better in my hockey helmet now, I'm more aerodynamic on the ice," he said.

Despite his diagnosis, Dave is still "really, really busy with life stuff" and is "treating this as a journey". Hoping to help others who might be at risk of developing the same cancer, he said: "If I can help someone who is watching get an early screening... go do it, for me early detection meant everything."

Dave has cancer in his family, having lost his mother, sister and niece to the disease. One of his other sisters is also currently having treatment for cancer. He said: "I saw what those women in my family went through, and I thought to myself, 'If I can be just 1/10th of a percent as strong as they were, then I'm going to be just fine."

Preferring to keep a positive outlook, Dave wants to be around to be a grandad, as his son Luc is expecting his first child. He added: "You can look at life one of two ways - it's the old saying look at the glass half full. I think that helps a lot and how you go through something like this. This is a journey this is a bit of a battle. You're going to need to be on your game, keep doing what you're doing, keep laughing your way through life and keep your friends and family close."

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