A special t-shirt can change a life.
That’s the message behind national charity Supertee’s work.
Since 2018, the group has been helping children who are fighting serious illnesses with a medical garment that’s been disguised as a superhero costume.
Founder Jason Sotiris created the Supertee out of desperation after “one of the darkest moments” he experienced as a parent.
“My daughter Angela was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, she had tumours all over her body,” he said.
“She was one-year-old and what followed was a couple of years of treatment and anything that could go wrong went wrong.
“My little girl got viruses and infections, it was really hard and quite traumatic to see her go through a lot of pain and suffering and we had no idea of when it would stop.
“I had to ask the question what are her chances of beating it and they told me straight, with everything that she was facing she had a 20% chance of survival.”
The diagnosis rocked their entire world and left Jason searching for ways he could help and that’s when he created the Supertee.
“I noticed how hard it was to change her because she was connected to all these IV drips and you would ask the nurse for help, no parent is going to change their child when they have all these needles connected to them and I thought: ‘You know what I am going to try to do something here’ and that started the idea,” he said.
What followed was two years of trial and error before landing on a design that would help kids across the country.
The garment bypasses medical lines and tubes making it easier to change tops and the underarms open easily for temperature checks.
“I am very proud to say that in 2018 I went back to the hospital that treated my little girl and I held her hand and I held the supertee in the other and we were giving out the supertees for free,” Jason told the Newcastle Weekly.
“Now, we’ve helped thousands of kids but it is nothing in comparison to the amount of kids we could help.
“Any child who is facing a terrible situation deserves a costume of their own to show their strength and imagination.”
The charity stopped in at Newcastle this week to pack 300 garments for children at Maitland and John Hunter hospitals.
Thanks to a generous donation from Orica, the organisation has been able to expand from its base in Western Sydney to help children in the region.
Moving forward Jason says they need more help, they’re calling on the community to sponsor a supertee for $45 to donate to a child in hospital.
Go to the Supertee website for more information.