The fight card had two main events Saturday night. As fans around the world were glued to the much-anticipated Daniel Cormier vs.
Jon Jones rematch at UFC 214, ending soon after a concussive kick to Cormier’s head, Duke’s Brewhouse was putting the boot to cancer in a rematch of its own.
The Plant City eatery held its second annual “Give Cancer the Boot” event Saturday, to raise money for the Tampa-based Moffitt Center, a leading cancer research and treatment center, and the STANO Foundation. STANO, an acronym meaning Supporting Troops Area wide, Nationally and Overseas, sends care packages to troops at home and abroad every month. It’s also named for the program’s founder, Paula Stano.
This year’s event featured drink specials, raffles for cash and prizes, live music from local band Rimfire and coincided with a viewing of the much-anticipated UFC 214, helping pack the house. It was standing room only until the early hours of Sunday morning, when the pay-per-view fight came to an end.
“It’s been packed,” Paul Ostendorf, general manager of Duke’s said. “It’s definitely a bigger turnout than last year.”
Since opening in early 2015, owner Chuck Jamieson said community involvement, including frequent benefit events, has been a priority. Last year’s event raised more than $3,400. Funds raised from the event are split between STANO and Moffitt.
According to the Florida Department of Health, Florida has the second highest cancer burden in the nation, with an average 100,000 new cancers diagnosed each year. In 2014, more than 42,000 Floridians died from cancer-related causes. Rick Miller was not one of them. He’s survived colon cancer, melanoma and basal cell carcinoma.
“I’m a three-time cancer survivor,” Miller said. “This is a great
event. There’s a great turnout and very generous people. It hits me on several levels. The generosity is one thing and people caring about others with cancer is another.”
That care and support can be the difference between life and death for many, including breast cancer survivor Kelli Harnage. Harnage, 37, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in November 2016. She thought it meant the end for her, but her doctors assured her she’d survive.
She had a double mastectomy on June 28. Just a few weeks earlier, while wearing a pink shirt with the words “I am brave and strong” her friend Brandy Snook made for her, Harnage rang the bell after her last chemotherapy treatment at Moffitt. It was a difficult road, she said, one that might not have been possible without the support of her friends and family.
“The road we have to go through, the emotion, you definitely need the support,” Harnage said. “I thought my world was going to end. I thought it was a death sentence.”
Now, with just seven weeks of radiation left, the mother of four children, aged four to 21, stood smiling outside of a packed Duke’s Saturday night, her eight-year-old daughter, Leah, dancing around her feet, knowing, at least for her, cancer got the boot.