Girl's struggle for life inspires $18,000 fund 13-year-old died awaiting transplant

Lauren Lendle left this world the same way she came into it -- too early.

The South Baltimore seventh-grader was born a month premature. Afflicted with cystic fibrosis, she died years and years too soon. When she died April 21, she was 13.

In the last weeks of her life, Lauren inspired a far-flung fund-raising effort to save her. Organizers in Anne Arundel County enlisted dozens of volunteers from as far away as Alaska, North Carolina and Texas in a quest for funds to pay for a lung transplant.

"It was unbelievable how people reached out and were willing to help without even knowing her," said Linda Yarbrough of Glen Burnie, one of the main fund-raising coordinators. "But that's just human life. Everybody has to reach out and do their part."

Lauren was one of 30,000 children in the United States with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder in which mucus builds up in the lungs, causing respiratory problems and infections. Those with cystic fibrosis usually live to age 30, but about 20 percent die before age 18, said Dr. Beryl Rosenstein, director of the Johns Hopkins Cystic Fibrosis Clinic.

In and out of hospitals for most of her childhood, Lauren went into a decline last fall. The fund raising began March 13, after she was put on the Johns Hopkins waiting list for a lung transplant.

Her parents, Roger and Joni Stull, went to friends at the Brooklyn Seventh Day Adventist Church for help in raising $100,000 for the transplant. Yarbrough was one of a core group of six who came forward to raise funds with help from the Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA), based in Bloomington, Ind.

"Even if I didn't know her, I would have wanted to help XTC somehow," she said. "It's a terrible illness, especially for a child. A child hasn't even begun living."

Because most of the six volunteers lived in Anne Arundel County, that was where most of the fund raising took place. The volunteers placed donation cans in supermarkets and stores around the county and planned a bowl-a-thon in Severna Park. They held a country-western concert in a Beltsville church and received thousands of dollars from churches in Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Frederick counties.

Family friends in faraway states took up collections. The Maryland Division of the Civilian Guard, based in Glen Burnie, held bake sales and carwashes in Severna Park. Kimberlee Rucks, who heads the Guard's charity efforts, said members were eager to help Lauren, although they had not met her.

"The only thing I thought of when I heard about it was: This child is 13 years old; she shouldn't be going through this," Rucks said. "If we can help her live to see graduation, to see her prom, why not?"

Fund-raisers had collected close to $18,000 and were planning a May Trek-a-thon and a June gospel concert when Lauren died of respiratory failure. She was first on the Hopkins waiting list.

"I was devastated," Yarbrough said. "We all kept saying, 'We could have done more,' but there's not really anything we could have done."

With their son, 17-year-old David Lendle, away at boarding school, Lauren's parents both teachers, have to grapple with an empty house that still says "Lauren" everywhere.

They miss the straight-A student who loved macadamia nuts, Hootie and the Blowfish, dinners at Pizza Hut and watching "The Price Is Right" while cuddling up with her mother; the bubbly mall rat who slept in a warm pink bedroom with Cal Ripken Jr.'s blue eyes watching over her from a huge poster.

"I miss her so much," said Joni Stull. "What I miss the most is her saying, 'Mommy, I love you so much.' We were so close to getting a transplant. That's really the hardest thing in the world."

The Stulls hope her death will prompt more people consider becoming organ donors. The money raised will cover Lauren's medical bills, and COTA will receive the remainder.

"Her death is a tragedy," Roger Stull said. "But if this can help raise the consciousness of other people, that's what we're hoping for."

Pub Date: 5/14/97