‘Like a nightmare you can’t wake up from’: High school senior battles brain cancer weeks before graduation

BELTON, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - A 19-year-old is battling Glioblastoma, a cancer that attacks the brain stem, weeks before her high school graduation.

Ava Castilla began noticing symptoms after a trip to Colorado in July 2024.

“She got sick in July up there and had to be put on oxygen,” Ava’s mom, Lori Castillo, said. “And when she came home, she just never got better.”

Ava spent the following months in and out of the hospital on different treatments before being diagnosed with Glioblastoma in March. The cancer has left her unable to move, eat, speak or breathe on her own.

“It’s like a nightmare you can’t wake up from, basically,” Lori Castillo said.

Her mother shared Ava’s heartbreaking words when she got her diagnosis.

“The first words that came out of her mouth were ‘Am I gonna die?’” Lori Castillo said.

When Ava’s former manager, Shelby Reyes, heard the diagnosis, she began raising money for her. She also started a prayer group for her.

“I don’t look at these kids as my employees, I look at them as my own children,” Reyes said.

Ava worked at Bush’s Chicken in Belton, Texas, for two weeks before her condition made it impossible to work. Her store now sells wristbands and cookies to the Castillo family.

A GoFundMe has been created to help with Ava’s medical expenses.

Ava is set to graduate from Belton High School in May.

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