Former Vice President Joe Biden gave a heartfelt message of hope to Meghan McCain on The View on Wednesday over her dad’s recent brain cancer diagnosis. Biden’s son, Beau, passed away in 2015 after a long battle with glioblastoma, a rapid-growing and aggressive form of brain cancer.

McCain began by saying she tried to read all of Biden’s book about Beau’s battle with cancer, Promise Me, Dad, but couldn’t and went on to try to ask what advice he has to anyone going through cancer with a loved one.

“I think about Beau almost every day, and I was told—I’m sorry—that this doesn’t get easier, but you cultivate the tools to work with this,” she said. “I know you and your family have been through a tragedy that I haven’t conceived of.”

Biden got up and moved seats to sit next to McCain before taking her hand and offering his recollections of John McCain with Beau and telling Meghan McCain there’s always hope.

“Look, look, look… one of the things that gave Beau courage—my word—was John. You may remember when you were a little kid, your dad took care of my Beau. Your dad… became friends with Beau. And Beau talked about your dad’s courage—not about illness—but about his courage.”

He turned to the audience, still holding McCain’s hand, and attempted to offer some hope for anyone suffering from glioblastoma, “which is about as bad as it gets”: “There’s a lot of things happening… there’s breakthroughs that are occurring now… It could happen tomorrow.”

Biden went on to speak warmly of Sen. McCain and their decades-long friendship despite being on opposing sides of the political aisle.

The pair joked about how Sen. McCain has gone after Biden “hammer and tong” in the past, but “I know if I picked up the phone tonight and called John McCain and said, ‘John, I’m at Second and Vine in Oshkosh, and I need your help. Come,’ he would get on a plane and come.”

Biden ended by saying the most important thing was hope.

“The thing that I found — and Beau insisted on, your dad is going to insist on — is you’ve got to maintain hope. You have to have hope,” he said.