James Van Der Beek's family have been "so supportive" of him amid his cancer battle

Speaking about his wife, James told PEOPLE: "There's no way to get through this without her.

"As much as it sucked this past year, there's not a moment that I ever would have wanted to trade with her watching me go through this. To every caregiver out there, man, God bless you and thank you."

Although James' children have felt "scared" at times, they've also been hugely supportive of him.

The 'Dawson's Creek' star said: "They're scared. It's natural. But they've been so supportive and loving and tender."

James recently admitted that he was caught off-guard by his diagnosis.

The actor - who was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer - told PEOPLE: "It was just a change in bowel habits.

"I thought, I probably need to change my diet a little bit. Maybe I need to stop coffee. Maybe I need to not put cream in the coffee. And then I finally took that out of the diet, and it didn't improve, and I thought, all right, I better go get this checked out."

Initially, James was relaxed about the situation, assuming it would be easy to remedy.

He shared: "I felt really, really good as I was coming out of anesthesia that I had finally done it and looked into it. And as I was coming out of the haze, the gastroenterologist said - in his most pleasant bedside manner - it is cancer."