AMD students design clothing to accommodate child with cancer

Student News
By Bryce Jones
07/18/2019
Aila Nesbitt (center front) told students in Ellen McKinney's apparel, merchandising, and design class her story and picked out fabrics for the dresses they made her that accommodate her chemo port..

KCCI News published an article about how Amy and Nick Nesbitt, parents of four-year old Aila, recruited apparel, merchandising, and design students to create dresses for their daughter to wear during cancer treatments.

Aila was diagnosed in 2018, and since then she’s spent long hours in the hospital for chemotherapy. These treatments require her to be connected to wires, which would get stuck on her clothes and cause pain.

Some of associate professor Ellen McKinney’s students took on the task of designing clothing to help. Aila visited the class to pick out fabrics and share her story before they began the project. She now wears her new dresses with pride.

This story aired on KCCI TV news at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on July 16 and during the 4:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. broadcasts on July 17.

Read the KCCI story.

Key contacts

Ellen McKinney, associate professor of apparel, merchandising, and design, emckinne@iastate.edu 515-294-7536

Cathy Curtis, communications director, College of Health and Human Sciences, ccurtis@iastate.edu 515-294-8175

By Bryce Jones
News