Brokaw:

COSTA MESA — Veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw urged supporters of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s Cancer Center to work to fight the disease at a brunch Friday, comparing the push for better treatment to other organized movements in recent U.S. history.

Brokaw, the former “NBC Nightly News” anchor, was the featured speaker at the 21st Annual Circle 1000 Founders’ Brunch at the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa. The journalist, who lost his longtime friend and fellow news anchor Peter Jennings to cancer three years ago, stressed the importance of furthering cancer research and also making treatment accessible to more Americans.

“We have a moral obligation to fix health care in America because it is central to the obligation we have to each other,” Brokaw said to an audience of more than 600 people.

Brokaw cited feminism and the civil rights movement as examples of people mobilizing for change. The fight against cancer, he said, was a goal that united almost everyone, not just a select few.

“We’ve all lost too many friends to cancer,” Brokaw said.

After Brokaw’s speech, Lula Halfacre, the chief executive of Traditional Jewelers in Newport Beach, presented him with an 18-karat rose gold watch.

The brunch capped a record fundraising year for Circle 1000, a group of community volunteers that formed in 1988 and conducts annual letter-writing campaigns. The group raised $1.17 million in the last 12 months, with funds to be given to research, lab equipment and an expansion of the Hoag Cancer Center.

“Some of our supporters have been supporters for 10, 15 years,” said Vicki Booth, a member of the Circle 1000 Founders’ Committee. “There’s wonderful loyalty in our community. But it’s really because everyone has been touched by cancer.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].