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HILLSBOROUGH: Teens targeting cancer: 8th-grader raising funds in mom’s memory

By Andrew Corselli, Staff Writer
   Stephen Wurst is not your average teenager.
   After losing his mother, Laurie Parlin, to triple-negative breast cancer on Aug. 19 of last year, the 13-year-old has helped to raise $28,000 for the Laurie’s Legacy fund.
   ”We’re trying to raise money for cancer patients that can’t afford their bills and have to decide to either pay the rent or going to the doctor,” Stephen said. “It’s in memory of my mom; she passed away from breast cancer in the summer of 2009. I just want to make something good out of such a tragedy.”
   Stephen, an eighth-grader at Hillsborough Middle School who lives with his grandmother, Donna Parlin, on Renate Drive, hasn’t raised the money all by himself. He’s had help from friends and the Steeplechase Cancer Center in Somerville, where his mother was treated.
   ”The Steeplechase Center sent out a big mailing last December and got a lot of the money raised from that,” he said. “Some of it has come from my friends; there’s actually a girl (Emily Raczkowski) I know in the high school who, for her Sweet 16, asked people to donate to the charity and that raised $2,000. (For) the Somerset Patriots fundraiser we had a basket auction. We raised $1,300 there.”
   Despite the amount he already has raised, Stephen is not finished. He has made it his goal to reach the $30,000 mark with a holiday fundraiser.
   Working with the Steeplechase Cancer Center and the Somerset Medical Center Foundation, Stephen has written letters to his classmates, people in Hillsborough and citizens of Central Jersey for donations. For each donation, an ornament will be added to the Hope and Remembrance Tree at the hospital. A $5 contribution will add a silver star or ball to the tree, a $10 donation will add a white angel, snowflake or red ball, and a $25 donation will add a pink bell or ball. Tags saying “in memory of” or “in honor of” can be added to each ornament at no extra charge.
   ”With this fundraiser that we’re doing now, I want to get up to $30,000,” Stephen said.
   One reason that Stephen has decided to work with the Steeplechase Cancer Center is because the hospital was so kind to his family while his mother was being treated there, he said.
   ”They helped us with gift cards to the grocery store and stuff like that,” said Donna Parlin. “They were just so supportive. Lots of times when you go to the doctor you’re just a patient — you go in they do what they have to do and you’re out. Steeplechase is so much different; you walk through those doors and you feel like part of a family.
   ”(Laurie’s) doctors, Dr. Kathleen Toomey and Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, were just amazing. After Laurie passed away, Dr. Lanfranchi called me and we talked for an hour on the phone. What doctor does that? Seriously, you feel like you matter.”
   Donations for the holiday fundraiser, which are tax-deductible, can be sent to Donna Parlin at 910-1 Renate Drive, Hillsborough, NJ 08844. Checks should be made out to “Somerset Medical Center Foundation.” For more information, call 732-921-1815.