Sue and Ed Goldstein
Philanthropists
Live In: Warren, New Jersey
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: Unsung Heroes
Sue and Ed Goldstein, New Jersey parents who lost both their daughters to cancer, found a way to turn their unthinkable tragedies into hope for others.
In 1970, the Warren couple’s 3-year-old daughter Valerie was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. At the time, New Jersey had no pediatric oncology facility. Throughout Valerie’s six years of treatment, the Goldsteins had to make repeated trips to a hospital in New York for her care. It was a huge burden for a family already pained by Valerie’s struggle.
When Valerie succumbed to her disease at age 9, the Goldsteins were determined that no other New Jersey family or child should have to go through what they had endured. Through their efforts at research and fundraising, the Valerie Fund Children’s Center at Overlook Hospital in Summit opened in 1977. Today, there are Valerie Fund Centers in eight pediatric hospitals in New Jersey, New York City and the Philadelphia area, each providing care for stricken children and support services for their families.
“I’m most proud of the fact that we are taking care of our children with cancer and blood disorders here in New Jersey,” Sue Goldstein told New Jersey Monthly in 2013.
Compounding their tragedy, the Goldsteins lost their older daughter, Stacy, to breast cancer in 2001. She was 37. Again, the Goldsteins turned their grief into something positive via a $5 million gift to the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey to support breast cancer research and treatment. Thanks to this endowment, the Stacy Goldstein Breast Cancer Center at Rutgers CINJ was named in Stacy’s memory. Today, it continues to offer a broad spectrum of therapies and advanced treatment options for breast-cancer patients.
Commenting on the Stacy Goldstein Center, Ed Goldstein has said: “By having Stacy’s name on the wall of the breast center, Sue and I are hopeful that the women, men and their families who come through here will realize they are not alone in their fight.”
Indeed, Sue and Ed Goldstein have been there in the darkest moments for untold thousands of cancer patients and their loved ones.