Metro

Mom told 9-year-old son he had cancer, collected thousands in donations: cops

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THE PARENT TRAP: Susan Stillwaggon of Pennsauken, NJ, allegedly tricked her 9-year-old son into believing he had Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma and posted this photo (left) on Facebook in an appeal for help. (
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“Mommy Dearest” has nothing on this woman.

A South Jersey woman told her 9-year-old son he had a deadly cancer when he was really just fine — and led him on by holding fund-raisers and bake sales where she raked in thousands to pay for his sham care, cops said.

Susan Stillwaggon, 35, duped her son, Nick, her husband, and her entire Pennsauken community into believing the boy had Stage 3 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cops said.

The boy thought he was terminally ill, while she accepted about $2,000 from donors, cops said.

Even her trucker husband Chuck believed his son was dying of cancer, cops said.

In February, Susan told him an exam found cancerous cells.

Chuck would come home from work and ask his wife about any developments, cops said.

She would list the doctor’s appointments Nick had that day — many of them lies, cops said.

“He’d get his report when he came home, and mom would tell him of the doctor’s appointments of the day and many of them were fabricated,” Pennsauken Police Detective Sgt. Cheryl Duffy.

In the meantime, word got out in the community.

“They had several fund-raisers for the family — little soccer kids selling cupcakes,” Duffy said, adding Susan had another $1,500 incoming before she was busted and charged on Thursday.

A local trophy store donated a dozen shirts bearing Nick’s name to his soccer team.

“It’s pretty sickening,” said Ken Howard, manager of Third Base Sports & Trophies.

Susan also made and sold bracelets modeled after fellow liar Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong brand that read “Team Nick” and “No One Fights Alone,” cops said.

And a benefit and dinner at the boy’s school was slated for June — with ticket prices set at $25 a head, and $40 for a couple.

“A parent’s worst nightmare is having a sick child. Sadly, the Stillwaggon familv is suffering just that,” reads the benefit’s Facebook page, which lists Susan as a creator.

“Even with insurance, this fight is extremely expensive.”

Nick’s Facebook page shows gratitude for the community’s suuport.

“My stomach still hurts but I am trying to rest like mom says so I can go to my teams soccer games this weekend because they did something really special for me,” reads a post he purportedly wrote on March 7.

Police began investigating when an anonymous tipster alerted them this month — and the boy’s principal at St. Cecilia’s school called police two days later.

The mom had forged a letter from a hospital detailing his diagnosis, which she gave to the school, but officials were suspicious because he did not seem sick, cops said.

The school alerted the state Department of Children and Families, who asked Susan for proof.

The mom admitted the lie to cops but wouldn’t say it was for money troubles, police said.

“Her response to me was, ‘I need help,’ ” Duffy said.

Stillwaggon is now hospitalized. Her mom told a local news station she had suffered a breakdown.

She faces charges of theft by deception, forgery, endangering the welfare of a child and using a child to commit a criminal offense.

Additional reporting by Lia Eustachewich