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The Single Fathers Due to Cancer program is dedicated to helping the thousands of fathers who each year lose their spouses to cancer and must adjust to being sole parents.

Men who have dependent children and whose spouses or partners died from cancer are an overlooked population. The Single Fathers Due to Cancer program offers support, information, and resources to fathers as they adjust to being sole parents and work through their grief and that of their children. This program is the first of it’s kind in the U.S. and its purpose is to help widowed fathers who face unique challenges not addressed by traditional grief support groups that often attract an older, female population.

Developed by Donald Rosenstein, MD, director of the UNC Comprehensive Cancer Support Program, and Justin Yopp, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, the group grew out of the doctors’ work with young mothers who were dying of cancer and their families. During the counseling sessions mothers expressed concerns about how their husbands and children were coping with their terminal illness and would cope after their death.

Join the support group

The Single Fathers Due to Cancer Program includes a monthly support group for fathers and their children. The program is free and open to any single father due to cancer, but registration is required. The group meets the third Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m.,Fathers are welcomed to bring their children, who will be supervised in a separate room and provided pizza, drinks and activities.

For more information, visit singlefathersduetocancer.org, email singlefathersduetocancer@unc.edu or call (984) 974-8113.