When Beverly Chappell met 13-year-old Dougy Turno at Oregon Health and Science University in 1981, adults didn’t talk to children about dying.
But Chappell observed that Turno wanted answers about his inoperable brain tumor — and that he benefited from talking to other children and teenagers facing their own fatal health problems.
Chappell turned that observation into Dougy Center, a 40-year-old nonprofit that annually helps more than 2,000 adults and children process grief and dying using a peer-support model that has shaped the field internationally.
