[4] In 1952, when boarding at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Convent School, Castagna contracted polio and was the first case of polio to be admitted to the Alice Springs Hospital, although an epidemic of the virus would follow, and she was soon transferred to Adelaide by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
[5] It was intended that Castagna would remain in care for the rest of her life, she was regularly told that she would die before she turned 30, but, with the intervention of Don Broad, her physiotherapist she was allowed to come back to Central Australia, where her family were now living in Alice Springs to live with them.
[4] Upon returning to Alice Springs Castagna started working at the Sunny Centre (now known as Acacia Hill School), which caters for students with intellectual and physical disabilities.
It also challenged me to use a lot of skills I had but didn't know I had or that I was capable of.Castagna spent five years working at the Sunny Centre before being appointed the Coordinator of disability services for the Northern Territory in 1983.
In addition to her coordinator role, Castagna became an Alice Springs Town Council in 1984 and served until 1992, when she decided not to run again.