My girlfriend, Erika Ramos da Silva Teixeira, has received offers to study a year-long Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering and Aerospace Materials to start in September/October 2018 this year. We have been together since the summer of 2014 where we met at the airport in Erika's home city, Manaus in Brazil, whilst I was visiting the Amazon. To pursue her educational and professional aspirations, the UK universities that specialise in Aerospace Engineering are a perfect fit and not accessible in Brazil or other places. This also means we can be closer together and do what most couples do, like have dinner together and make joint decisions about many important things.

Erika has applied to the Chevening Scholarship and has been unsuccessful in obtaining an award with no reasons provided due to the number of applicants. This would have funded all tuition fees, living costs, visa, start-up costs and travel to the UK. University is extremely expensive and neither Erika's family nor myself have the money to fund the tuition fees for the one year Masters. The tuition fees are £20,000 at Cranfield University, which is an exceptional university in Bedfordshire specialising in aerospace engineering. Living costs are estimated to be between £9,650 to £11,600. This does not include start-up costs such as deposits or visa and travel costs.

Erika is 26 years old and comes from Manaus in the Amazon, north of Brazil and has already overcome many barriers to get this far, graduating with a Mechanical Engineering degree in February 2018 with a First Class Honours equivalent, averaging 81.9%. This is in addition to undertaking internships at Honda, Technicolor and SC Johnson and leading a number of projects outside of her university course, such as one where she led a group of fellow students in creating a large remote controlled cargo plane, which required securing sponsorship to compete in national competitions across Brazil. Erika has already overcome many barriers to get this far and wishes to accept Cranfield's Masters offer and pursue her dreams of helping shape the future of air travel to benefit everyone in the world. This would include making flying more efficient and better for the environment as well as making education in the area more accessible to everyone.

We hope you will consider helping, any amount will be gratefully received.

Update: Erika achieved a score of 7 (out of 9) in her IELTS English exam, so more than enough to study in the UK and makes her offer unconditional! Erika has also been successful in being awarded two scholarships that help with the university fees! We just need to find the remaining funds, which are around £20K, which includes meeting the UK's strict visa requirements from a financial perspective. Any ideas and help will be gratefully received! We are committed to making this happen this year!