alex's story

After a long and arduous battle with cancer, Alex passed away on January 7, 2018 very peacefully surrounded by his mom and dad, both sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and numerous friends.

 

Alex was born at St. Joseph hospital in Pontiac, Michigan on October 19, 1993. He attended St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School in Bloomfield Hills, MI from Kindergarten through 8th grade, and Brother Rice Catholic High School, class of 2012 in Birmingham, MI. He attended Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, class of 2016, where he excelled and graduated with honors with a Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain Management. During his scholastic years, Alex tutored numerous friends and fellow students in the Multicultural Business Program.

 

Alex greatly enjoyed to travel and was able to do so on several occasions. Alex's love of speaking Spanish coupled with his desire to help others directed him to participate in the annual Peru mission trip through Brother Rice High School during his senior year. After Alex’s sophomore year at MSU, he studied abroad in Spain, and even ran with the bulls in Pamplona. During his junior year, he earned an internship at Intel Corporation in California as a Business Analyst. Following MSU graduation, he and his friends traveled throughout Asia for six weeks of fun and adventure before the start of his career. 

 

Alex was employed at A.T Kearney as a Data Analyst in Chicago. Alex loved his work and colleagues, never wanting to let them down despite his illness and treatments. The employer/employee relationship was reciprocal: with equal parts showing deep compassion and respect. 

 

Alex was truly a role model and inspiration to us all. Following is the full post on Alex’s Facebook Page- May 26, 2017: 

 

“For those of you who I have not been in close contact with for the past few months: I have some bad news. For the second time in my life, I've been given a cancer diagnosis. 

 

In February a team of the best and brightest doctors in the world performed an open heart surgery to remove a large tumor and half of my left lung. Though they were able to remove the tumor in its entirety, there was evidence of cancerous cells in one of my ventricles, so a strong chemotherapy regimen was recommended. I am now 4 out of 6 sessions through that. The past few months have been the darkest of my life, but the kindness and caring shown to me by my close friends and family has been a pillar of light. Without being asked they were there for me, day and night, and they wouldn't go away even if I asked them to. I would know; I tried on numerous occasions to kick them out of my hospital room.

 

Most people's first response is always to tell me that they'll pray for me, keep me in their thoughts, send positive energy, etc. I deeply appreciate the sentiment, but I'd ask for something else instead. Perform an act of kindness for a stranger. Talk to me about how it went. Spread a little love on my behalf and I promise that you'd be making me feel a lot better in a challenging time….

 

…thanks for reading my story. Do some good. Love you all.”