SAN ANTONIO – KSAT viewers may remember a 2023 story about T-shirts with zippers sewn into them for kids receiving chemotherapy through ports.
San Antonio mom and Army veteran Debi Nieto began making the shirts for kids after seeing her son, Noah, battle cancer.
Recently, KSAT caught up with Nieto, who shared several big changes in her life.
However, one thing had stayed the same: the clicking of a sewing machine coming from Nieto’s home office.
Three-and-a-half years have gone by since she started the nonprofit Stay Strong Foundation. She makes shirts with “I.C.O.N.” written on them, which stands for “In Care of Noah.”
The idea was inspired by Noah, who was diagnosed with a form of bone cancer called Ewing sarcoma when he was 17.
He received his chemotherapy through a port in his chest.
“He’d have to take off his T-shirt or if it was cold in the winter and he had a sweatshirt, he’d have to put on a hospital gown,” Nieto said. “And he hated that.”
Noah’s aunt sewed a zipper into a few shirts that he loved. When he finished treatment, he wanted to give shirts similar to his to other patients.
Nieto went to YouTube, learned how to sew and the Stay Strong Foundation was born.
In her update for KSAT, she shared that Noah is about to reach four years in remission. He also graduated from the University of Pittsburgh earlier this month.
“Tests thus far have shown that we’ve gotten all the cancer because they amputated him, and he’s become an amputee. He’s thriving,” Nieto said. “He’s riding a bike. Who would ever thought (sic), you know?”
Noah became the motivation Nieto never realized she would need.
Months after KSAT interviewed her for the first time in 2023, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare cancer with no cure.
“I just was, like, ‘My family can’t handle this again. Like, they went through it with Noah, there’s no way.’ And I cried for a lot of days,” Nieto said. “I cried a lot for months. And Noah said, ‘Nope. We’ll figure it out.’”
As Nieto said, her family “figured it out.” So far, she has undergone radiation, chemo and a stem cell transplant.
Nieto even held her head high last week when she received some heavy news.
“Something came up in my numbers last week. So, now they’ve added another treatment. That was kind of scary, you know? Just getting that news,” Nieto said. “But it’ll be OK.”
Nieto is now taking immunotherapy injections on top of her once-a-day chemo pill. The new treatment comes with exhaustion and an irritating cough, among other symptoms.
When asked if there was ever a thought in her head to just relax and take a break from sewing the cancer shirts, Nieto said, “No. I couldn’t, not for the kids. I couldn’t. I will never stop.”
She credits her board at the Stay Strong Foundation for the continuous love and support, but Nieto alone sews the shirts.
So far, Nieto has made 1,176 shirts and still makes between 30-50 cancer shirts a month, which are solely custom orders for families all over the world.
“As far as Croatia and Australia, four other countries, but darn near every state in the U.S. Right now, it’s really big in Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio, for whatever reason,” Nieto said. “I think people use them and word of mouth just starts spreading.”
“This is a special order from Wisconsin,” Nieto said, holding up a Green Bay shirt. “I’m a Green Bay (Packers) fan, so obviously, I’m going to make it.”
Nieto showed shirts with Bluey, Maui, or other popular characters, with the zipper matching colors perfectly.
“I try to match the colors, so that it’s not so noticeable,” Nieto said. “It’s not like, ‘Hey, look at me, I’m a cancer kid.’ Because that really matters to them.”
On top of the custom orders, University Hospital is a big supporter of Nieto’s foundation. The hospital keeps an inventory of zipper shirts for patients.
Every now and then, University Hospital fills up its inventory, ordering up to 200 shirts at a time.
While the hospital doesn’t have a timeline for Nieto, she tries to finish them as quickly as she can.
“Another place we’re sending them to is in Waco at the McLane Children’s Hospital because one of Noah’s doctors actually moved there after Noah’s treatment,” Nieto said.
Nieto said she has never turned down an order.
“I will never say no,” Nieto said. “Even if it means coming out of my own pocket.”
Some may describe her attitude as determination. She and her son, Noah, call it something else.
“I’m very stubborn,” Nieto said, laughing. “He (Noah) says, ‘Mom, you’re the most stubborn person I know. He says, ‘God’s not gonna let you die because you’re too stubborn to die.’ And I say, ‘OK, well then, I’m good.”
Nieto said being a cancer patient won’t define her.
“No one’s going to give me an expiration date, so I’m going to push through this and see my grandbabies graduate,” Nieto said. “And we’ve got stuff to do.”
While Nieto plans to stay strong, she said she’d love some help with the Stay Strong Foundation through donations or people willing to volunteer their time to help sew.
Anyone interested in helping can reach out to Nieto on Facebook or the Stay Strong Foundation by clicking here.
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