MedTees for the Holidays

"Kori" - a patient with a MedTee
(Used with permission: click to enlarge)

In 2005, my wife and I started MedTees.com, a website powered by the t-shirt company Cafepress, to support various charities.

The idea of the website is a simple but important one: "We have few role models and few realistic stories about living with a less-than-perfect body, or less than perfect health. How we choose to deal with the cards that life gives us is what this site is all about."  About half of the slogans used on the various t-shirts sold by the site were donated by our patient-customers with proceeds directed to the charity of their choosing.  All proceeds that we receive from the sale of these shirts (about $3/shirt) is donated at the end of each year, proportional to the themes of the t-shirts sold.  (By the way, we're always looking for new ideas for shirts.)

Since we do not purchase advertising, this blog serves as our "ad space" for MedTees.com.  This will be the only blog post used this holiday season to promote the site, so if you're looking for something different to offer a friend who's been through a tough time medically this past year, consider a MedTee.

It might mean more than you realize.

Happy Holidays -

Diane and Wes Fisher

Shameless Self-Promotion for a Good Cause

Now for a bit of shameless self-promotion.

My wife just published a podcast for our Medtees website which makes these goofy medical t-shirts that support lots of charities. You can link to the podcast, produced by PRWeb, on this page and see the shirt that I brought her after her thyroidectomy (such a nice husband, huh?).

Or, if you haven't checked out our ABC 7 News (Chicago) spot filmed earlier, you can view it here and listen to the stories from a few of our customers. (Yes, yours truly is in it, too).

Seriously, there are plenty of good causes that these shirts support, including the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Heart Rhythm Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the American Academy of Orthotics and Prosthetics Project Quantum Leap (for amputees), the Epilepsy Foundation, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), American Organ Transplantation Association, Arthritis Foundation, etc., etc. We're happy to say that over $1000 has been donated to these charities so far! JDRF has the highest donations, followed closely by the Heart Rhythm Foundation and American Cancer Society in a close race for second place.

International customers have included folks from Canada (eh?), the United Kingdom (the other side of the pond), Australia (Down Under), New Zealand (WAY Down Under), Puerto Rico (Que pasa?), Greece, Finland, the Netherlands, and Argentina so far. International shipping is pretty reasonable: about $7 US.

And yes, we're still soliciting ideas for new shirts. We do ask that the ideas be "kid friendly" (we like to keep our site at least PG-rated) since kids get diseases, too. But if your idea is used, we'll send you the shirt free. You can e-mail me your idea(s) at wes [at] medtees [dot] com. All contributors are acknowledged and get to decide where to direct the funds for their shirt (sorry, only legitimate 501-3c charitable organizations permitted).

So if you know someone that is sick, isolated, or frustrated with their condition, or someone who loves to poke fun at their condition to advocate for their disease, consider one of these shirts. Get them for you, your friends, or your neighbors and help support your favorite charity this holiday season.

Alright, I'll stop.

-Wes