Luke's FastBreaks

Luke's FastBreaks is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that makes colorful medical shirts for toddlers, children and teens in the hospital for long periods of time with serious chronic and terminal illnesses including childhood cancer, bone marrow transplant, autoimmune diseases, infusion, heart transplant - the majority of children Luke’s FastBreaks serves have an extensive amount of IVs, lines, tubes, a port and many have feeding tubes.

The medical shirts enable pediatric patients to feel comfortable during their stay and boost their self-esteem by allowing for self-expression with various color options and designs. The Luke’s FastBreaks medical shirts meet hospital standards, allowing them to replace the traditional hospital gown in an effort to help with the mental fight these children face. The medical shirts also restore their privacy—something that’s often lacking in the traditional hospital gown. Most importantly, we believe these medical shirts give children back their dignity.

The idea for the medical shirts was started by 9 year old cancer survivor, Luke Lange, from Dallas, Texas. During his hospital stay, Luke was forced to trade in his gym shorts and t-shirts for a new uniform—the hospital gown. Most pediatric patients will tell you the hospital gown leaves little room for privacy and strips them of their identity making the psychological challenges for a child fighting a serious illness like cancer even more severe.

Luke said the hospital gown made him “feel more sick”—he just wanted to feel like a normal 3rd grader.

That’s when Luke and his parents had an idea. They cut up the sides of his t-shirts and sewed in snap tape allowing easy access to ports, IVs and lines while also giving Luke the ability to be in an outfit that looked and felt normal (https://youtu.be/9gIqW99Rba0). Luke wore his new shirts to treatment at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas that day other children within the hospital started asking where they could get one. Soon after the nonprofit, Luke’s FastBreaks, was founded (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeCHhokYTDs).

Even though the shirts were designed for cancer patients any child who has “tubes” and IVs in them can benefit from these shirts. The Luke’s FastBreaks medical shirts are beneficial to any child in the hospital long-term receiving care especially if that child has extensive tubing, IVs or ports.

The Luke's FastBreaks partners with a number of hospital-related organizations including the Association of Child Life Professionals. Physicians and hospital staff credit the Luke’s FastBreaks medical shirts for giving the children a sense of normalcy during their hospital stay.

Luke’s Pediatric Oncologist, Dr. Kelly Vallance from Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas said the following about the Luke’s FastBreaks medical shirts; “The Luke’s FastBreaks medical shirts are something that every child in treatment can use. It’s a tremendous benefit and gives (patients) a sense of normalcy while they are in the hospital.”