A former banking executive who transitioned into breeding champion dogs also started out as one of the island’s promising young athletes.

Donna Castle was a teenage track star known for the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100 relay, and won two silver medals and a bronze medal at the Carifta Games.

She was also part of a 4x100 relay team that won silver in Ponce, Puerto Rico at the precursor to the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Mrs Castle was 17 when she fell ill for the first time on a trip to Jamaica to run track.

The rare autoimmune disease, sarcoidosis, would return in another form decades later and eventually claimed her life.

Her first round of illness required three months’ treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

It derailed her competitive athletic career, but Ms Castle continued to play in netball and field hockey.

Mrs Castle, who held a computer and technology degree from Bermuda College, started in the operations department of the Bank of Bermuda and rose to senior positions in its treasury and finance departments.

She met her husband, Kenneth “Jack” Castle, as a fellow athlete at the National Sports Centre.

Mr Castle was a footballer with the national youth team. The two became a couple, marrying in 1988. They had a son, Casey, and a daughter, Kaelyn.

The couple began breeding dogs, beginning with Pekingese followed by Rottweilers.

The hobby grew into a business, Bur Castle Kennels, which became KastleHaus Kennels.

Closely involved in the island’s dog community, Ms Castle was among advisers to the then Ministry of Environment on Bermuda’s list of prohibited and restricted dog breeds.

Her club membership included both the Bermuda and American Kennel Club, the Rottweiler Klub of North America, the Bermuda Rottweiler Club and others.

The couple made headlines in 2011 when their champion Rottweiler, Tantunka vom Eschenhagen, was featured on the cover of Total Rottweiler Magazine to the backdrop of Warwick Long Bay — after placing fourth in his class at the World Dog Show in Paris.

The dog was kept by friends in Riverside, California, because of the island’s ban on Rottweilers.

Mrs Castle’s family said she was “instrumental” in getting the breed taken off Bermuda’s banned list.

She was a regular at shows abroad, and over the years, the family had several champions shown at the World Dog Show.

Mrs Castle’s illness returned in 2022, now manifesting as a condition known as renal pulmonary vasculitis.

Her family said she fought the illness with “strength and resilience”, and was able to return home from medical treatment to continue her ordinary life.

However, she fell ill again this April, and succumbed in May after a 20-day fight at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

• Donna Louise Castle, a banking executive who founded KastleHaus Kennels with her husband, was born on September 28, 1961. She died on May 17, 2024, aged 62