My mother, Charlotte, died of lung cancer in June 2001, after battling the disease for five months. Out of her struggle – and my role as chief caregiver – came the idea for Fighting Chance.

What I found was that those dreaded words – “you have cancer” – are traumatic for the patient as well as loved ones. You stop thinking clearly. You become emotionally distraught. You find it difficult to obtain essential information and make intelligent decisions. You are “overwhelmed”.

What we desperately needed was a “clearinghouse” of relevant resources and someone to help navigate my mother and me through the maze of health care issues. At the eastern end of Long Island, where my mother lived and died, there was nothing of the sort.

So we did the best that we could and every night my prayer to God was exactly the same: “Lord, all we are asking for is a fighting chance.”

From that experience our non-profit organization—Fighting Chance – was started and is now celebrating its 5th anniversary. We proudly serve as a unique resource center for the cancer patients on the East End of Long Island. We have a budget of $300,000 a year and raise those funds from individual donors, large and small.

Our office in Sag Harbor receives calls and emails every day from cancer patients who have just learned of their diagnosis. Often they seem as dazed and confused as my mother and I were – except now there is place to go. Where you can obtain a resource guide, one-on-one counseling, join support groups, and so much more.

And everything is free of charge.