{"id":28815,"date":"2016-02-02T21:04:57","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T02:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2016\/02\/03\/cancer-diagnosis-sparks-entrepreneurphilanthropist\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:53:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:53:50","slug":"cancer-diagnosis-sparks-entrepreneurphilanthropist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/02\/cancer-diagnosis-sparks-entrepreneurphilanthropist\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer Diagnosis Sparks entrepreneur\/philanthropist"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12794\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/02\/CJay-DiPrima-newsroom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12794\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12794\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/02\/CJay-DiPrima-newsroom-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"NECC art student CJay DiPrima launched &quot;Stay Positive Apparel&quot; with a childhood friend after a diagnosis of NonHodgkins Gray Zone Lymphoma. \" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NECC art student CJay DiPrima launched &#8220;Stay Positive Apparel&#8221; with a childhood friend after a diagnosis of NonHodgkins Gray Zone Lymphoma.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Even though Northern Essex student and cancer survivor CJay DiPrima isn\u2019t a chemistry major, he sure knew how to turn a negative into a positive.<\/p>\n<p>When the Windham, NH, resident was diagnosed with a rare form of NonHodgkins Lymphoma, called \u201cgray zone\u201d in the fall of 2012, the news was devastating for DiPrima and his family. There are approximately 500 diagnosed cases of gray zone in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>DiPrima, who was a student at Franklin Pierce University at the time he was diagnosed, took the spring of 2013 off and underwent intensive chemotherapy and radiation. His personal mantra throughout his ordeal was \u201cstay positive\u201d. He and childhood friend Tom Mullin thought the mantra might look interesting on a t-shirt and went to work designing one. When they realized \u201cstay positive\u201d wouldn\u2019t fit on the front of the t-shirt, they shortened it to \u201cstay +\u201d with the thought they could change the + sign to different colors to represent different cancers.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_12795\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/02\/CJay-and-Tom-Mullin-newsroom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12795\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12795\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/02\/CJay-and-Tom-Mullin-newsroom-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"NECC student Cjay DiPrima (left) and childhood buddy Tom Mullin, who attended formerly NECC, are the founders of Stay Positive Apparel.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12795\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NECC student Cjay DiPrima (left) and childhood buddy Tom Mullin, who formerly attended NECC, are the founders of Stay Positive Apparel.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The t-shirts started to get noticed, he says. So he and Mullin wrote a short business plan, filed for an LLC in New Hampshire as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.staypositiveapparel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stay Positive Apparel<\/a>, and started promoting the t-shirts on social media.<\/p>\n<p>That lone t-shirt design has grown to include men\u2019s and women\u2019s tank tops, winter hats, baseball caps, sweatshirts, wristbands, and visors. The apparel are screened locally at a Pelham, NH, company \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bodyrags.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Body Rags<\/a>. DiPrima and Mullin have a shipping station set up in the DiPrima home and ship their products all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe donate 30 percent of all proceeds to the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center for Children, which is where I was treated,\u201d he says. \u201cThis was a way for me to give back for all they did for me\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To date, Stay Positive Apparel has donated close to $9,000 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.massgeneral.org\/children\/\" target=\"_blank\">MGHfC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now in remission, the entrepreneur turned philanthropist is slated to graduate from NECC in May with an associate degree in art with a focus on multi-media. He currently carries a 3.75 GPA.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old says his NECC classes have played a role in the company\u2019s success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love Northern Essex. I\u2019m always designing and I\u2019ve been able to incorporate my business designs into school projects and vice versa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DiPrima\u2019s story has caught the attention of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmur.com\/new-hampshire-chronicle\/thursday-february-4th-bright-ideas\/37687106\">New Hampshire Chronicle<\/a>, which will be airing a feature on Stay Positive Apparel on Thursday, February 4.<\/p>\n<p>When DiPrima isn\u2019t in school or working on Staying Positive Apparel, he stays busy bussing tables at Mary Ann\u2019s diner in Windham, NH. He will transfer to Southern New Hampshire University in the fall taking 90 NECC credits with him. He plans on studying graphic design and media arts.<\/p>\n<p>He and Mullin, who is studying business, would like to make Stay Positive a full-time gig. For now they are attempting to make the company a nonprofit and have a launched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/staypositivedonate\" target=\"_blank\">gofundme<\/a> site to pay for the legal expense of filing for nonprofit status.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though Northern Essex student and cancer survivor CJay DiPrima isn\u2019t a chemistry major, he sure knew how to turn a negative into a positive. When the Windham, NH, resident [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":28817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cancer Diagnosis Sparks entrepreneur\/philanthropist - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/02\/cancer-diagnosis-sparks-entrepreneurphilanthropist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cancer Diagnosis Sparks entrepreneur\/philanthropist - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even though Northern Essex student and cancer survivor CJay DiPrima isn\u2019t a chemistry major, he sure knew how to turn a negative into a positive. 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