Fighting Chance Celebrates 20th Anniversary With A Pair Of Events on Saturday, May 14

Fighting Chance, the Sag Harbor-based charity that provides free cancer counseling and related services to anyone who walks in its door, will celebrate its 20th anniversary beginning this week with two major events in Sag Harbor on Saturday, May 14.

The day will begin with the Sag Harbor Cinema screening the inaugural Courage & Cancer Film Festival. The event, which starts at 10 a.m., will feature excerpts from eight films selected by Emmy Award-winning producer and writer Susan Lacy, who is best known as the creator of the American Masters series on PBS. Lacy will lead a question-and-answer session following the screening.

That afternoon, Dr. David Tuveson, who is considered among the most elite researchers seeking to cure pancreatic cancer, will speak at The Church on Madison Street at 2 p.m.

In keeping with Fighting Chance’s tradition, both events are free, although advanced registration is required.

Fighting Chance was founded by Duncan Darrow, a semi-retired Wall Street attorney, who said he was spurred to action when his own mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he found it difficult to find answers to his questions about the disease that would claim her life less than four months after her diagnosis.

After her death, Darrow said he volunteered with East End Hospice, which focuses on comforting patients at the end of their lives, but that he found himself drawn to providing assistance to the beginning of what he calls “the cancer journey.”

“The last week is tough,” Darrow said, “but the first week is just as bad.”

From modest beginnings in a tiny office on Carruther’s Alley in Sag Harbor to larger quarters on Bay Street as well as an office in Stony Brook Medicine’s Phillips Family Cancer Center in Southampton, Fighting Chance has helped thousands of people over the years, from providing counseling services, aid with paperwork, or free transportation to and from appointments.

Darrow said he hoped the film screenings would help shed light on various stages in the cancer journey and offer a different way to celebrate Fighting Chance’s anniversary.

“These films all focus on different mile markers in the cancer journey when the patient’s innermost emotions surface — whether its fear, anxiety, love, and, of course, courage,” he said.

The excerpts will be taken from films including “Terms of Endearment,” “Beginners,” “My Life,” “One True Thing” and “Marvin’s Room.”

Tuveson is the president of the American Association of Cancer Research, the president of the Cancer Center at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the senior advisor to Stand Up to Cancer, and the chief scientific officer of the Lustgarten Foundation’s “Cure Pancreatic Cancer” initiative.

He will speak on “Science Against Cancer: The Next 20 Years” and will provide a layman’s description of ongoing developments in the struggle against cancer.

Fighting Chance will hold two major fundraisers in June. After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, the organization’s annual gala will take place on June 4 at the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett.

The following week will mark the return of a fundraising event that was inaugurated last year, Boaters Against Cancer, in which the owners of a number of boats will take small parties of guests on a late afternoon ride around Shelter Island on June 11.

Information is available and registration can be done for all of Fighting Chance’s upcoming events by visiting at fightingchance.org/events or by calling its Sag Harbor office at 631-725-4646.