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Filed Under:Bernie Tafoya, cancer, Children's Memorial Hospital, Lurie Children's Hospital, Toy Drive
Mark Staehely with staffers at Children's Memorial Hospital.Credit: Facebook/Make Your Mark (The Mark Staehely Pediatric Cancer Foundation)

CHICAGO (CBS) — A toy drive that has put smiles on the faces of hospitalized children for nearly 15 years has come to an end.

Sue Staehely’s son, Mark, started the toy drive in 2000, getting people to donate 150 toys to the pediatric cancer unit at Children’s Memorial Hospital – now Lurie Children’s Hospital.

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By last year, the toy count was more than 80,000, but that turned out to be the final toy drive for Staehely and the organizers of the annual toy drive.

“I’ve asked these folks for 14 years to pretty much give up their Christmas to help me carry on what Mark started,” she said.

Staehely said she’ll continue collecting money for pediatric cancer research through her son’s foundation, Make Your Mark, but now she’ll be spending the holidays with her 17-month-old granddaughter.

“I just want to really be able to enjoy her this holiday,” she said.

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Nine years ago, Mark made his mom promise before he died that she would keep up the toy drive for as long as she could, and Staehely said she has done that, but the toy drive has become more work than she can handle.

“When there’s five or six of you, and you’re trying to sort 80,000 toys, it becomes a little overwhelming,” she said.

This year, she won’t be stopping by Lurie Children’s Hospital with a delivery of toys for the holiday for the first time in 15 years.

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“If you would have asked Mark all those years ‘What do you want for Christmas, Mark?’ his answer would have been not to have cancer,” she said.