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Mother Of Little Girl Battling Insatiable Hunger Raising Funds For Bike

UPLAND (CBSLA.com) — Melissa Castillo, an Upland mother, is raising funds for a bike for her daughter who has a congenital disease.

The disease known as Prader-Willi Syndrome causes low muscle tone, reduced mental ability and insatiable hunger.

Castillo's daughter, Kayla, 10, was born with the syndrome.

"I imagined the pregnancy, then the birth, and then the motherhood would just be what I'd seen on TV," said Castillo, who gave birth at 19.

"Like every mom, they don't want their kids to go through anything, but she's gone through a lot," she said.

Castillo says Kayla never feels full.

Instead, she says she goes to bed and wakes up hungry.

"We wake up early and 'Mommy, my tummy is talking to me,' " Castillo said.

But for Kayla, her struggle doesn't end there, as she also has severe form of juvenile scoliosis.

"She's blessed to have high tolerance for pain because she would have complained years ago," Castillo said.

Kayla wears a cast to correct her spine and, every three months, undergoes anesthesia to get a new cast. She is expected to have the cast for two years.

"I apologize that she has to go through this. She just said, 'It's OK, Mommy. I want to be like everybody else,' " Castillo said.

Because of Kayla's low muscle tone and the cumbersome cast, she can't do the one thing she loves most, which is to ride a bike.

Castillo, however, cannot afford the $5,000 bicycle that accommodates Kayla's needs.

When the fourth-grader tested one out last year, Castillo said: "I think for the first time, she had the feeling of like, 'Look, I could ride a bike like all the other kids.' "

Castillo has started a fundraising page to pay for the bike and hopes to have it by summer. For more information, click here.

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