Hi There,

Thank you for your time in reading about Domenica and her urgent need.

Domenica is the older sister of Emilio Castillo from Ecuador. Many of you know and have helped in Emilio's college tuition in Quito, Ecuador. My presence in his and his family's life quite simply has been life changing.

His family is forever grateful for all I and other donors have done for them and pay with constant love and prayers.

The Castillo family has a crisis in that their second daughter, Domenica needs medical treatment and then a cornea transplant and if not she will go blind in a short time.

Please take a minute and read her translated note below:

Greetings, my name is Doménica Castillo, I am 20 years old, and I am the second daughter of four brothers. One of my brothers is Emilio Castillo, a squash player, a sport that I love and am passionate about, but for health and academic reasons I no longer practice it. Today I suffer from several diseases in my eyes, one of them and the most serious is called “keratoconus”, which has been advancing since I was very little and over time has caused my vision to deteriorate. In addition, I also suffer from myopia and astigmatism; likewise in both eyes, which significantly increase the severity of my vision. These diseases that I suffer from have limited and harmed me in my university and daily life due to the different discomforts they cause (burning, headaches, blurred vision, tearing, itching, etc.). I have already undergone surgery which served to stop the disease in one of my eyes, it did not eliminate the disease or improve my vision. My other eye was unfortunately already badly damaged. Now I have to start a treatment called “contactology and optometry” that lasts approximately a year to improve my vision a little and prepare my eyes for future surgery which is a corneal transplant. In advance, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your great help

And in

Hola, les salud Doménica Castillo tengo 20 años soy la segunda hija de cuatro hermanos. Uno de mis hermanos es Emilio Castillo jugador de saqush, deporte el cual amo y me apasiona, pero por motivos de salud y estudios ya no lo practico. Hoy en día padezco de varias enfermedades en mis ojos, una de ellas y la más grave se llama “queratocono”, la cual ha ido avanzando desde que era muy pequeña y con el tiempo ha provocado que mi vista se vaya deteriorando. Además, también padezco de miopía y astigmatismo; de igual manera en en ambos ojos, las cuales aumentan significativamente la gravedad de mi vista. Estas enfermedades que padezco me han limitado y perjudicado de en mi vida universitaria y cotidiana por los distintos malestares que provocan (ardor, dolores de cabeza, vista borrosa, lagrimeo, picazón, etc). He pasado ya por una cirugía la cual sirvió para detener la enfermedad en uno de mis ojos, no eliminó la enfermedad ni mejoró mi vista. Mi otro ojo lamentablemente ya estaba muy dañado. Ahora tengo que comenzar un tratamiento llamado “contactología y optometria” que aproximadamente dura un año para allí si mejorar un poco mi vista y preparar mis ojos para una cirugía futura la cual es un trasplante de córneas. Anticipadamente quiero agradecerles de corazón por su gran ayuda.