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A new home, a recent engagement and a burgeoning career.
Life was just taking off for 27-year-old Alexa Mastando. Then came the devastating news of a leukemia diagnosis.
The speech pathologist from Miller Place — who friends effectionitely call a “ray of sunshine” — needs a bone marrow transplant and faces nearly four more months of inpatient treatment in the hospital
Community members from Miller Place, her alma mater Rocky Point High School, and across Long Island and the country are providing a wave of financial support to the former high school softball star, striving to help ensure Mastando wins her leukemia fight. A GoFundMe fundraising effort for Mastando has raised more than $54,000, which will go toward offsetting her massive medical bills.
“We just want to say that the love and generosity has been overwhelmingly amazing,” read a statement from Mastando’s family, which was posted on the GoFundMe page. “We are so grateful for the outpouring of support, both financially and emotionally. We feel blessed beyond words to be a part of this generous community.”
Mastando, who played softball at SUNY New Paltz and graduated in 2018 with a degree in communication disorders, was recently engaged to her fiancé Mike and, according to the GoFundMe page, the couple closed on a home purchase in South Carolina just days prior to her cancer diagnosis. She is on leave from her job as a speech pathologist.
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‘Alexa Strong’
Erin Kitz, a family friend and organizer of the GoFundMe page, noted how special Mastando is to her family and friends.
“In anything that Alexa has done, everyone could account [for] her sincerity, amazing humor and warm personality,” Kitz wrote. “She is the light of the room and the person at the party that makes everyone feel heard.”
Top photo: Alexa Mastando and her fiancé Mike (GoFundMe).
