Friends of Sara and Luiz Silva would like to introduce you to Cataleya, their precious 9-year-old daughter, and share the story of their difficult journey. Cataleya was a vibrant and energetic girl until age 4 when she began experiencing severe pain in her legs. At age 5, after several months of undiagnosed pain, it was discovered she had the rare bone disease known as CRMO, or Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis; a disease that inflicts just 1 in 1,000,000 people. CRMO is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue and organs causing inflammation, bone lesions and severe pain. Sadly, this was not the end of Cataleya’s challenges. Just months ago, at age 9, she was diagnosed with a second medical setback called Primary Pain Disorder, a disease that causes sensational nerve pain in her legs 24 hours a day. This diagnosis now requires mom to sleep with Cataleya nightly to attend to her constant and unforgiving pain. Cataleya is now confined, with few exceptions, to a wheelchair, and gets out of the house only for medical appointments at the Minneapolis Children’s Hospital Pain Clinic, The Courage Center or the University of Minnesota Hospital. She’s had 31 appointments in just the past three months alone! It is devastating that Cataleya is unable to enjoy the social or physical activities of healthy children her age. Sara and Luiz not only care for Cataleya. They have devoted their lives to helping others. Sara needed to resign from teaching kindergarten in Colorado to return home to Minnesota so her parents could help with Cataleya’s care. Since moving home she has started Maria’s Voice, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting people impacted by domestic violence. This dream of Sara’s was developed in response to tragically losing a family member as a result of domestic violence. Luiz is a dedicated school bus driver for Eden Prairie Schools. He is loved by his students, their parents and all of his fellow employees…..none of which knew, until recently, of the struggles that he and his family have dealt with for the past 5 years. Although around-the-clock care for Cataleya makes dedicating time to their work lives extremely difficult, they have somehow been able to make it work. We are seeking financial support to help the Silva family. Contributions of ANY size will be used to retrofit their home to be wheelchair accessible and for vehicle and trip costs to get Cataleya to her many treatment visits. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your consideration!