“He looks amazing,” says Lyssa Chapman about her father Duane “Dog” Chapman, who she got to spend some quality time with while meeting his new fiancee Francie Frane. After being separated during lockdown, the Chapman family are celebrating this the one year milestone since Beth Chapman’s passing, and how the bounty hunter is moving forward.
Since losing his beloved wife Beth Chapman nearly a year ago to lung cancer, the acclaimed bounty hunter has been mourning and trying to move forward with his life. He announced to fans that he had proposed to his girlfriend Francie Frane in May, but due to COVID-19, his children hadn’t been able to meet her yet. According to Lyssa, Frane’s influence on Chapman has been incredible.
Read More“She’s very encouraging to his health, and she is very healthy as far as what she puts in her body or puts on her skin,” Lyssa says about Frane. “I’d say that she’s inspired a great change for sure.”
Duane “Dog” Chapman talks to SurvivorNet about life after losing Beth
Cancer Activism After Losing A Loved One
Watching a spouse go through cancer treatment is already difficult, but losing your loved one to the disease can be devastating for one’s mental health. Many people cope with grief differently, and in the case of Chapman, he tells SurvivorNet that talking through his grief helped him immensely. While holding Beth’s hand through treatment, Chapman said he actively tried to learn more about the disease, and explored the benefits of medical cannabis for cancer patients.
Chapman isn’t the only spouse to start researching treatment options for cancer. Doug Wendt lost his wife Alice to ovarian cancer after 25 years of marriage. Following her passing, Doug decided to use their experience to help raise awareness about the disease by creating an organization in Alice's honor, the Cardinal Cancer Foundation, with the mission of empowering women to take control of their health and to report and question symptoms when they have them.
Dog Chapman describes holding Beth’s hand during treatment, and the benefits of medical cannabis
"We don't know what the outcome could have been if she had addressed [the symptoms] earlier," Doug said. "Or if I had demanded that she address them earlier, as a husband who was more involved and more proactive … That's really the focus of the Cardinal Foundation. Yes, we want to help women facing ovarian cancer, [but] we'd really rather they not get it at all. We'd also rather that if they do have to face it, they face it earlier rather than later, and that means that we all have to be a lot more attentive to the real health needs of women in our society."
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