Janet Liang
Age: 25
Cancer Patient/Asian American Bone Marrow Advocate
Why she's influential: Because she's turned her personal life-and-death struggle into a nationwide movement for bone marrow registry in our community.
At age 22, while majoring international development at UCLA, Janet Liang was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. During her treatment, with the help of friends, she launched the "Team Janet" campaign, urging fellow Asian Americans to register to become a bone marrow donor.
In June 2010, after enduring eight rounds of high-dosage chemotherapy, she left the hospital in complete remission and began a regimen of maintenance therapy that kept her cancer-free for a year a a half. She finished her studies, graduated college, traveled, and got a job. The future was bright.
Unfortunately, her cancer came back. But it hasn't stopped her fighting spirit.
Janet has until June to find a perfect bone marrow match -- her best option for a full recovery. At 25 years old, this is literally a matter of life and death. But she's used her situation as an opportunity to create awareness about the severe dearth of registered bone marrow donors within the Asian American community.
Are you on Team Janet? She's on a mission to register as many Asian Americans as possible. You could be the match that saves a life -- maybe even Janet's life. Her efforts have helped register nearly 20,000 donors, sparked a national awareness campaign, found life-saving matches for several patients, and hopefully find her own match soon. Sign up here.
See the rest of the 30 Most Influential Asian Americans Under 30 here.