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

MedTees is Now on Facebook

I just put up the long-overdue MedTees Facebook page last evening. Since May, 2005 it's been an amazing ride with literally thousands of people worldwide purchasing shirts for themselves or their loved ones. (To give you some idea of the number of people we've touched, we sell approximately 250 shirts per month). Insodoing, we contribute to various charities involved with the support of people afflicted with many ailments. Here's a few ways people have used MedTees from our testimonial webpage:

"I am a bi-lateral above knee amputee (I have no legs!). I would like to thank you for providing us with shirts that keep our sometimes sick sense of humor going. Joking around about it is a big part of my rehabilitation. I am a Marine and I lost both my legs in Iraq along with three of my friends who are also bi-lateral and one who is a single above knee. We laugh about it all the time and have fun with it, cause how else can you cope with something like this. "

"Neil," Ishpeming, Michigan, Cpl/USMC, (Injured Dec 7th, 2005 Ar Ramadi , Iraq )* * *
"Loved the philosophy behind your t-shirts. I bought two, one for my oldest daughter Teresa and one for me. Teresa is a cancer survivor. She loves the shirt, but mostly she appreciates the care associated with it."

-Mart* * *
"I wanted to thank you for your efforts and creativity in the t-shirts that you have put out. I had a Long QT incident and was dead for about 7-10 minutes. I was saved by my 8 year old son who dialed 911 and was doing rescue breathing on me when the paramedics arrived. I really like the "Death" t-shirt and the QT shirt. My husband even said that the QT shirt would promote questions by people. Thank you for bringing laughter to such a serious subject."

"Jennifer", Age 36, Colorado

Happy holidays to you all and thanks for making this so much fun.

-Wes

Get $5 Off Medical T-Shirts Today

.... over at Cafepress's marketplace. (In fact, ALL shirts are $5 off today only) Just use code LRTXY99 at checkout. Offer good 'til midnight tonight.

-Wes

Get $10 Off MedTees

Five years ago, my wife and I started MedTees.com, a medical t-shirt web site that helps support a number of worthwhile charities and non-profits (the list of groups is found on the right-hand sidebar of the site's home page). The philosophy of the site is simple:

At MedTees.com, we pick up where diagnosis and treatment leave off. That is, what happens AFTER the dust settles and you go home and they CAN'T fix what's wrong or the fix is tough to live with.

Lots of folks have used these Medtees in creative ways. As a result, we have contributed nearly $10,000 to our charities and non-profits since we started. The holiday season is particularly important for that effort.

Beginning at midnight tonight (0001 am 20 Nov 2010) and continuing though midnight 23 November 2010, you can get $10 off any purchase of $50 or more by entering the code FRIENDS10 at checkout. The site is powered by Cafepress.com (we don't collect credit card information, they do) and they ship just about anywhere in the world.

So end this notice to friends and family, and if you have any new ideas for shirts, we're still accepting those, too.

-Wes

We Interrupt This Blog

... to do a bit of self-promotion. Cafepress, our distributor for our medical t-shirt website, MedTees.com, is offering a free upgrade in shipping until midnight tonight so t-shirts ordered for yourself or a loved one can arrive by Christmas eve. For overseas and non-US territories, today's the last day to have orders received in time for Christmas via express delivery.

Remember, 10% of proceeds from the shirts helps support plenty of worthy charities.

-Wes

The First 100 Days

Much has been written about the first 100 days of any new President's term in office, but what about the first 100 days after a life-long amputee gets his first "bionic" prosthesis?

Meet Darin Sargent, the proud recipient of the "i-Limb" (from Touch Biotics), the Ferrari if you will, of hand prosthetics. I stumbled upon his blog after I noticed once of his videos showcasing one of the shirts from our Medtees website: "Dude, Where's My Arm?"

" I was born missing my left arm from just below the elbow down and have pretty much been able to accomplish what I have wanted to in my life. This journey is a whole new ball game. From the emotions of taking this step to the challenges of using the i-limb, this is going to be quite a ride.

I thought that I would use this blog to chronicle my journey."

As an engineer at heart, I found the inner workings of the prosthesis and how it's worn particularly interesting, but it pales in comparison to the encouragement and support he lends to others with similar issues through his videos and blog.

-Wes

Just Right

Boy, I never knew one of our MedTees could look so cute.

-Wes

PS: For those interested: here's our entire amputee section.

Gettin' Ready

I took a brief blog break to update our MedTees site to get ready for the holidays. If you haven't seen it, head on over and check it out.

MedTees, humorous t-shirts for the irreverent patients out there, make a great gift for folks who've had a tough year medically and help support a variety of charitable organizations. This weekend, free shipping is available for orders of $50 or more (just be sure to enter the proper coupon code a checkout). We ship internationally, too.

-Wes

More Fun at MedTees

I just finished putting a few new suggested designs that passed our "highly selective" peer-review process on MedTees.

One is for ladies with celiac disease, shown here:



But my new favorite might be this for post-hysterectomy patients:



What do you think? Got another one?

-Wes

Gone Viral

Yesterday, by son was on his Facebook account and was sent a "Bumper Sticker" from a friend to place on his Facebook page. He had never seen this application before, so he decided to click on the "Most Popular" button to see what other "Bumper Stickers" were on Facebook. There, third most popular, was one he recognized immediately from our MedTees site.

As of last night, the image has been uploaded a remarkable 3,544,374 times on Facebook after being originally uploaded by Alec Chin Lee of St. Mary's College, Class of '09.

Wow, thanks, Alec!

-Wes

PS: Oh, and if you want your own bumper sticker (or magnet, apron, shirt, etc.) while supporting a good cause, click here.

Our Most Popular Shirt for 2007

Our pink "Cancer Picked the Wrong Diva" shirt was the most popular at Medtees.com this year. There's still two days left to receive this one (or any others) for friends or family in time for Christmas.

-Wes

MedTees in the News Again

Pretty cool. Our health-related t-shirt website, MedTees.com, was in the Dallas Morning News on 6 November 2007, this time for our diabetic shirt line.

-Wes

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