A hundred Supertees were delivered to Wyong Hospital on May 2 and five-year-old Eden Searston of Erina was first in line to receive his new medical garment.
The brainchild of tradie dad Jason Sotiris, who watched his own daughter battle cancer and now devotes his life to helping sick children in hospital, the garments are designed to allow easy access for nurses and doctors and are brightening the lives of children in hospital all over the country.
Featuring Marvel characters courtesy of Disney, the medical T-shirts make the children feel like superheroes, with the latest donation to Wyong Hospital made by the Mounties Group.
For Eden, his medical journey started in 2019 when he was just 19 months old, mum Sarah Fryc said.
“He was first diagnosed at Gosford Hospital and then transferred to Westmead.”
Following extensive chemotherapy treatments, Eden has been in remission since August, 2021 but still travels to Westmead every three months for blood tests.
“The treatment was really hard on Eden at first,” Sarah said.
“For the first two months he couldn’t even leave his room.
“But he’s a resilient little thing and by the end he was telling the nurses where to put the needle.
“He got his first Supertee in 2020 and has had several since.
“He still wears them when he goes for his blood tests – he won’t go to hospital without wearing one.
“He absolutely loves them.
“When he was first diagnosed he was wearing shirts which were hard to feed tubes through – the Supertees have been a lifesaver.”
It was the first batch of Supertee medical garments for Wyong Hospital and inventor Jason Sotiris was on hand for the delivery.
He said his dream was simple: to have a Supertee available for every child who needs one.
“So far more than 13,000 Supertees have made their way into hospitals around Australia giving already brave children additional courage, but our dream is to help bring out the Captain America and Captain Marvel in all children in hospital,” he said.
Last year, more than 8,300 Supertees were donated to sick children across 27 hospitals nationwide.
Terry Collins