Dance has been Noelia Martinez’s passion since she was a young girl. “When I was watching TV, I used to copy the choreographies of the dancers on TV.” She would “arrange my toys and dance to my toys, so the toys … will be like an audience.” Soon, she started ballet classes. In 2017, Martinez was the runner-up in an All Dance competition in the US. By her mid-twenties, Martinez was both a professional dancer and dance teacher in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Noelia Martinez sits on her bed at her apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina years after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 26. “I was in disbelief,” she said. March 15, 2025. (Photo by Alina Schwarcz for Global Citizen).
One day, while scrolling through texts on her phone, Martinez dropped it on her chest. She felt a small lump in her breast and, remembering a young woman’s breast cancer story she had seen on Instagram, decided to get it checked out. Her doctor told her not to worry; the lump would likely go away.
But it didn’t. A few weeks later, Martinez felt that the lump had grown, a fact her boyfriend confirmed. She went to a specialist, who diagnosed Martinez with breast cancer at 26. “I was in disbelief.”
A Rise in Early Adult-Onset Cancer
Martinez is part of an alarming global rise in early adult-onset cancer, which is cancer diagnosed in adults younger than 49. We know some of the famous names who are now the face of this trend: Chadwick Boseman, Kate Middleton, Lance Armstrong, Olivia Munn. Worldwide, diagnoses related to early-onset cancers rose by 79% from 1990 to 2019, while deaths increased by nearly 28%. Breast cancer is the most common type of early-onset cancer.
After her diagnosis, Martinez underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and 33 sessions of radiation. Then she concentrated on recovering and regaining her strength so she could return to dancing. But shortly after treatment finished, her right leg began feeling weak and progressively got worse. “I started to notice I was losing sensitivity to touch,” she says. Martinez had developed peripheral neuropathy, which is temporary or sometimes permanent nerve damage that can be caused by chemotherapy or radiation. She began dragging her right foot, and three months after treatment, Martinez got a knee brace to help keep her leg straight. “The neurologist told me to forget about dancing.”
After her diagnosis, Noelia Martinez sought to regain her strength as a professional dancer. However, complications from recovery required her to wear a knee brace to help with walking. March 15, 2025. (Photo by Alina Schwarcz for Global Citizen).
“A Light of Hope”
Many cancer survivors, like Martinez, develop a disability. In the US, researchers found that more than a quarter of cancer survivors have a disability that affects their movement.
Martinez had to now use a leg brace and cane or wheelchair to move around. But then a doctor told her about a new assistive medical device: a robotic leg.
The doctor told her the robotic leg would allow her to “go back to riding my bike or going for a walk.” Martinez says, “It was like a giant light of hope.” The leg takes a few months to create. “They would custom make it specifically for me … it's a fairly long process.” But once she got it, Martinez wasn’t one to start slow. “When I first started using it, I wanted to run out and do absolutely everything, to see what I could do, what I couldn't do.”
After her robotic leg arrived, Martinez suddenly remembered that she had seen a little boy with a prosthetic leg in the pediatric oncology unit during her cancer treatment. He held a toy bear made by his family with a prosthetic leg to match his own prosthesis. “When I saw the bear, I thought it was fantastic.”
She suddenly had an idea. Shouldn’t all children with disabilities have toys that represent them? She went online to see what was available for sale, but unfortunately, “I investigated and saw that it practically didn't exist.”
Bunnies for All
Martinez’s favorite toy as a child was a bunny, so she decided that she would make a variety of bunnies for children with disabilities: Bunnies with hearing implants, bunnies with prostheses, bunnies with tracheotomies.
Noelia Martinez working at her sewing machine in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she makes toy bunnies for children with disabilities that she sells online and at local fairs. March 15, 2025. (Photo by Alina Schwarcz for Global Citizen).
But Martinez didn’t know how to sew — she didn’t even have a sewing machine. So she borrowed her sister’s and turned to YouTube to learn.
Martinez has now sold around 400 dolls online and at local fairs. Hearing and reading the reactions from customers has been profoundly meaningful to her.
A mother named Cuty wrote: “Seeing that beautiful doll made with such love and attention to detail … seeing the scar on his chest that marks all of us, not just our son Migue, but all of us as a family, his heart condition, touched us all. Migue immediately fell in love with his rabbit, which he named Alejo! And with it, he learned to naturalize his scar and feel represented in a toy.”
Noelia Martinez decided to make toy bunnies for children with disabilities, inspired by her own recovery. She’s made bunnies with hearing implants, prostheses, and even tracheotomies. March 15, 2025. (Photo by Alina Schwarcz for Global Citizen).
Another woman, Fernanda, wrote after sending a bunny to her niece, who has a tracheostomy and uses a wheelchair. “It fills me with joy that so many kids can see themselves represented.” Martinez is now focusing on how she can scale the brand.
Back to Dancing
To meet Martinez is to meet a joyful force of nature. As Martinez began to walk, bike, and run with her robotic leg, she thought, “Well, I can do all this. Dancing might be an option.” And so, Martinez started again, reinventing what she could do as a dancer. She has even gone back en pointe while dancing ballet, and she is currently competing in the Dance World Cup-Latin America. Last year, she finished 4th out of 10 in her category.
With her robotic leg, Noelia Martinez has been able to dance again, even returning to en pointe while doing ballet. “Dancing is part of who I am.” March 15, 2025. (Photo by Alina Schwarcz for Global Citizen).
“The obstacles we face in life inform our creativity,” Martinez explains. “No words, no writing, can express how emotional dancing is for me. Dancing is part of who I am.”
The 2025 Global Disability Summit is cohosted by the International Disability Alliance and the Governments of Germany and Jordan.