Mom Whose Twin Marines Died of Suicide Pairs Vets with Rescue Dogs to Save Lives: ‘I’ve Found Purpose’ (Exclusive)

Two days after 24-year-old Sergeant David Cavanaugh’s suicide in 2017, his mother Cherya found herself in a house full of grieving friends and relatives. Numb with heartache and desperate to clear her head, she got into her car and went for a drive, asking herself, “How can I honor David’s life the way he would have wanted?”

Cherya got her answer about five minutes later as she drove by a sign outside the headquarters of the nonprofit K9s For Warriors. “I stopped in the parking lot,” she recalls, “I wasn’t sure if I should just sit in the car and cry or go inside and talk to someone.”

Cherya — whose life was soon to be rocked by another tragedy weeks later when David’s distraught identical twin brother Tommy, an ex-Marine, also took his own life — ended up walking into the group’s lobby that afternoon.

Between her uncontrollable sobs, she spoke to the receptionist and soon learned that the organization pairs combat veterans with shelter dogs trained to help them with PTSD, traumatic brain injuries and military sexual trauma.

David (2015) during water survival training.

Courtesy of Chery Cavanaugh

That chance visit changed the trajectory of her life, along with the lives of countless others.

And since that day, the 53-year-old mother of five has dedicated herself to helping K9 For Warriors — raising money and training the group’s four service dogs at the family’s home in Ponte Vedra, Fla. — to address the pressing issue of military suicides, which claim nearly 20 lives a day.

“Our family had a choice,” she says. “We could either curl up in the fetal position, crawl under the covers and never come out – or we could do what our sailor sons would have us do. And that was getting up and kicking life in the pants.”

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The Cavanaugh brothers’ decision to enlist in the Marines — Tommy went first, followed by David a year later — after graduation in 2011 surprised their parents. “We weren’t a military family,” she says, “in any way, shape or form.”

By 2017, Tommy left the Marines and became an EMT. But David, who served two tours, including as a machine gunner in Afghanistan, decided to stay in the military. By that point, his mother recalls, “life had become very different for David. He struggled, but never to the point where he didn’t want to wake up and see tomorrow.”

For more of Chery’s story, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

The Cavanaugh family (clockwise from top left: Kate, Kelley, David, Cherya, Tom, Tommy and Cassidy) in 2009.

Courtesy of Chery Cavanaugh

David was preparing to deploy to Iraq in September 2017 when two Marines in blue uniforms showed up at the family home early in the morning with the news of his death.

Twelve weeks later, Tommy took his own life. Until then, David and Tommy’s shocked mother was focused on doing what she could to help K9s For Warriors, which has provided 1,000 service dogs to vets in need since 2011. Tommy’s death only strengthened her determination to help the group.

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Over the past six years, she’s raised tens of thousands of dollars for the group, trains four service dogs — with daughter Cassidy — and often finds herself helping vets who knew her sons and now struggle with PTSD themselves.

Kele Clairmont, a former Marine who befriended David during his time in Afghanistan, spent years struggling with the disorder after his discharge in 2017 when his wife Kaitlyn reached out to Cherya in 2022 for help.

Cherya with Kele (and his service dog Luca) in July 2023.

K9 for warriors

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“I tried to push him down, but it was getting worse and I was getting really scared,” says the 32-year-old father of three boys, who credits his service dog, Luc, with bringing him back to life. “She turned everything around for me by 180 degrees,” he says. “There’s no doubt about it.”

Looking back on her family’s journey over the past six and a half years, Cherya, who now serves as a board member for K9s For Warriors, is encouraged that the nightmare they endured is now helping to prevent similar tragedies.

“Nobody wants to be in the club we’re in,” she says. “But I wake up every morning determined to make sure no other mother has to go through this. . . I found purpose for our family’s pain.”

For confidential mental health support, vets and loved ones can contact the Veterans Crisis Line at 800-273-8255 or text 838255.

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