2 doctors start widowed fathers support group

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Help is often available for women who lose their husbands too soon, but there is little support when it is the husbands who are left behind. Two doctors are setting out to change that.

Bruce Ham knows all about the questions, the struggles and the regrets of losing a wife to cancer.

"Lisa was the foundation. She was the glue that held us all together," Ham said.

At 39, the mother of Ham's three children died after a six-month battle with colon cancer.

"We spent so much time trying to be positive and trying to fight the disease that we did not spend as much time talking about what life would be like when she was gone," Ham said.

It's one of the most important conversations Dr. Justin Yopp of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says a couple in that situation can have.

"It's so difficult and there are so many obstacles to making that happen, that we see it now as an area that's really ripe for intervention," Yopp said.

That led Yopp and Dr. Donald Rosenstein, also of UNC at Chapel Hill, to start a first-of-its kind support group for widowed fathers.

"These men all describe a sense of being lost at sea initially," Rosenstein said.

From navigating the challenges of parenting, to moving forward, singlefathersduetocancer.org is a lifeline for dads.

"You're going to make mistakes. Your kids are resilient. You're resilient. You can get through those mistakes," Yopp said.

Three years after joining the group, Bruce Ham is doing the best he can.

"Life can be beautiful again," he said.

The group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is working to get similar support groups set up at major cancer centers across the country.

As for Ham, he's gone on to write a book about his experience called, "Laughter, Braids and Tears."