Her Son’s Wish Led One Mom to Create Dolls That Help Sick Kids Feel Loved—Especially At Christmas!
What started as one handmade doll grew into a global act of love for children facing illness
Inspired by her son’s wish for “a friend just like me,” Marty Postlethwait has comforted nearly 3 million children with handmade dolls — and brought joy to over 650 families with annual flights to the “North Pole.” Here, she shares her story with Woman’s World.
One evening in 1995, Marty Postlethwait was tucking in her 7-year-old son, Miles, when he made a quiet confession. “I wish I had a friend who was just like me,” he said.
Marty was confused. “You have plenty of friends,” she said. But Miles shook his head.
“They don’t have ostomy bags or big scars on their chests and stomachs,” Miles replied.
Marty’s heart ached. Miles had been born prematurely with multiple birth defects to his heart and abdomen. He’d spent months in the NICU and had undergone a dozen surgeries. The resulting scars were physical and emotional.
That very night, Marty called her friend, Deborah, a talented seamstress. “I want to make a doll that has scars and an ostomy bag — just like Miles does.” Miles designed his doll’s face with hearts for eyes and a bright smile. “He can be your Shadow Buddy,” Marty told him.
Miles slept with his new friend every night and carried it with him the next time the family traveled from their home in Kansas City to New York for yet another surgery. “This is amazing!” one of the nurses exclaimed. “We get lots of educational tools here, but none of them are as cute and comforting as Miles’ Shadow Buddy!”
A hopeful new mission
Marty realized there must be thousands of other children who also longed for a friend they could identify with. So she launched the Shadow Buddies Foundation, applied for grants from pharmaceutical companies and recruited a team of seamstresses to create the dolls.
Some of the Shadow Buddies had scars from surgeries; others wore ostomy bags, insulin pumps and bandages. “We’d like to order 5,000 chemotherapy buddies to give our child cancer patients,” the first drug company ordered.
Marty distributed hundreds of dolls through her website, ShadowBuddies.org, and to hospitals. Soon the thank-you notes poured in. Nothing could have prepared my husband and me for the look on our daughter’s face when she opened the package and discovered an Ostomy Buddy just like her, wrote one mom. She hasn’t put it down since.
But Marty and her volunteers didn’t stop there. They visited hospitals and threw “pink” parties and superhero soirees to give parents a break. “Go enjoy yourself for a few hours — we’ve got this,” she’d say, because she knew how much stress they were under.
And when the holidays rolled around, Marty had another idea. “Who wants to go to the North Pole?” she asked the kids, and the answer was an enthusiastic, “Yes!”
Marty spent months making the arrangements, but on a chilly December morning, 65 children — many clutching their Shadow Buddies — boarded a Delta Airlines jet at the Kansas City airport. “Ready for takeoff,” said the pilot, who, along with the flight attendants, had come in on a day off.
For many of the children, this was their first trip on an airplane. For others, previous flights had been to hospitals and weren’t fun at all. But not today.
While the plane circled the city for nearly an hour, Marty and her volunteers transformed the airport’s international gate into a winter wonderland. Lights twinkled. Trees sparkled. “Welcome to the North Pole,” said Marty as the kids disembarked and discovered their siblings and parents waiting for them.
Santa soon arrived with a police escort. Then the fun began with a cotton ball snowball fight, followed by crafts, a cookie decorating station, lots of caroling and gifts. Every child received their entire wish list—Marty and her volunteers had been shopping for months. Siblings and parents also got gifts—no one was left out.
“This means so much to me,” one single father told Marty in tears. “All my little girl wanted this year was a Barbie Holiday Princess, and she got it. My choice was between the doll or the electric bill.”
“I’ve been in those parents’ shoes — that’s why I do it,” says Marty, whose son is now 38, married and has two little girls of his own. Over the past 30 years, Marty has taken more than 650 kids to the North Pole and has distributed nearly 3 million Shadow Buddies around the globe. And it all started with one little boy who wanted a friend — just like him.
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