Supertees to inspire our sick kids

At first glance, it’s just an ordinary t-shirt, but look closer and you’ll see the Supertee is so much more.

“Our mission is to change the hospital attire for kids in hospitals,” says Operations Coordinator Terry Edgar, of the children’s charitable organisation Supertee.

The Supertee, Terry explains, is a medical garment disguised as a fun costume. It was an idea brought to life by founder Jason Sotiris, whose one-year-old daughter Angela was diagnosed with a rare cancer that led to a three-year hospital battle. Feeling useless and helpless, Jason looked for ways to improve his daughter's level of comfort... and the Supertee was born.

“It is essentially two pieces of material that come together by these plastic press studs,” says Terry. “Being plastic makes it MRI and PET scan safe, and all of the wires and tubes that the kids may be attached to can be stored neatly between these press studs down the sides.”

A medical gown is an almost universal symbol of being sick, which can be demoralising for a child undergoing treatment for life-threatening illnesses.

It’s like, ‘You feel sick, now you officially look sick'," says Terry. “With the Supertee, it is a garment whose aim is to give the kids in hospital that comfort, that dignity and also to inspire that imaginative play. We don't see them as medical garments; we see them as battle armour.”

Supertees come in a number of different designs, including ‘Space Commander’, ‘Ballerina’ and Marvel superheroes Captain America, Captain Marvel and Spiderman. Marvel has allowed Supertee free use of their characters and logos for the garments.

Supertees can now be found in 105 hospitals around Australia and, thanks to a grant from the Orange Ex-Services’ Club, 192 more Supertee packs have been donated to our hospital here in Orange.

Last week, the club’s board members and staff spent a morning individually assembling Supertee care packs, which included handwritten notes to be given to children at the hospital.

“We like to include our donors into the activity, to see where their money goes,” says Terry. “So we offer up an activity where they can pull together a team from the club – whether it be management, whether it be members, or the community – where these care packs actually get packed and then delivered to the local hospital to distribute the super tees where needed.”

This is now the third year the Orange Ex-Services Club has supported Supertee, and they are proud to do so, says club president Graham Gentles.

“The reason we're partnering with Supertee is because of our commitment to the community. Our club, our ethics, and our directions have always been to look after those within our area, and we support a lot of like-minded groups,” Mr Gentles said.

“Supertee is a wonderful initiative and it's just grown into something now that I think has become very valuable in hospitals for those children that are suffering, in some cases, with life-ending disease or other issues they may have. And so it's a wonderful opportunity for us to be involved in something that's worthwhile for our community.”