It started with a butterfly rash on his face.

“I thought it was hormones because I was a teenager. So, I got some Proactive. It got to the point where I started wearing make-up.”

Now, Richardson High School alumnus Gustavo Pinedo is waiting for the kidney transplant that will save his life.

Pinedo’s classmates and teachers remember him as the happy-go-lucky kid who loved to cook. He graduated from the school’s culinary magnet in 2007, but since age 16, he has battled the autoimmune disease known as lupus. It develops when the body’s immune system becomes overactive and attacks both harmful and healthy tissues. Symptoms include inflammation, chronic pain and, for patients like Pinedo, organ damage.

That’s when the RHS community stepped in.

“We have a saying, ‘once an Eagle, always an Eagle’,” says co-op teacher Rochell Washington, who had Pinedo as a student. “We come to the aid of a lot of previous graduates.”

Washington and the school’s Family Career and Community Leaders of America group started a 65-day campaign to raise $6,500 to help Pinedo’s family pay for his kidney transplant, which will cost $250,000.

“We know this is like a drop in the bucket, but we’re doing this so other people might hear about it and donate more,” Washington says.

Fundraising efforts spread throughout the school, where posters of Pinedo’s story hang on the walls. FCCLA raised more than $1,100 with a community garage sale. Students have held bake sales during lunchtime. Teachers started their own campaign in which they receive an extra “jeans day” with their donation.

“It’s just the big heart of our staff,” says ESL department chair Jeanne Cohen, who also has helped lead fundraising initiatives. “Many remember Gustavo and have come forth.”

But the support has not been limited to his friends and former teachers.

“Even people I don’t know and teachers I’ve never met,” Pinedo says. “It looks like I made a big impact on Richardson High School.”

For Pinedo, living with lupus means taking 12 pills a day to manage the symptoms of pain and fatigue. He underwent chemotherapy, which caused hair loss. The disease spurs anemia, so he must receive frequent blood transfusions after which it may take days to recover.

This past year, he was hospitalized nine times.

“Every step is like walking on nails,” he says.

That’s something Washington and Pinedo’s mother, Valentina, know all too well. They also have lupus.

“When I first was told that my son had lupus, I denied it and refused to accept it because my experience was very painful,” Valentina Pinedo says. “For the last two years, I was told every day that my son could die at any time.”

Washington says the disease affects people differently. Her immune system was strong enough to fight off the attacks on her healthy tissues. She noticed Pinedo’s symptoms as soon as they surfaced during his sophomore year at RHS. Unlike other chronic diseases, people with lupus appear relatively normal.

“It’s inside,” Washington says. “It’s hidden. This is bringing to the forefront what it is.”

But the disease has not kept Pinedo from living life. He works as a line cook at Nordstrom Bistro N and at the Northwood Hills Country Club. In 2008, he married his wife, Adriana, whom he met in high school.

“We used to bump into each other all the time in the hallways. So, I said, ‘You just want to go out?’ ”

Their daughter Maritcy was born in 2009, and the happy, playful 17-month-old adores her father.

“The hardest thing is seeing my daughter next to my bed wanting to play, and I can’t,” Pinedo says.

Doctors say there’s a 50 percent chance that his daughter might develop lupus. Gustavo and Adriana decided to take that chance.

“I wanted to have a family with Gustavo,” says Adriana, who speaks mostly in Spanish, which Valentina Pinedo translates. “I know he’s sick. That’s OK. When he lost his hair, I didn’t know what to do, what to say. He’s still the same person. I look at him, and he’s always happy.”

How to Help

To make a difference for the Pinedo family, visit transplants.org/donate/gustavopinedo to donate online to help fund his kidney transplant.