Background
Liang was born on January 6, 1987 at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Guy and Teresa Liang, Chinese American immigrants from Guangdong, China.
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Janet Liang
Edit Profile梁嘉欣
Education
Liang graduated from Amador Valley High School in 2005. She went onto study at University of California, Los Angeles, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international development studies and a minor in education in Spring 2009.
Career
In 2011, she was selected as one of Asian Pacific Americans for Progress"s Unsung Heroes. Throughout her college career, Liang participated in undergraduate organizations that included Project Working for Immigrant Literacy Development, which works with socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant students, and Net Impact Undergrad at University of California, Los Angeles, which focuses on socially conscious businesses. On 24 August 2009, during her fourth year at University of California, Los Angeles, Liang was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the Ronald Reagan University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center.
That year, she founded, a grassroots initiative aimed at mobilizing ethnic minority communities to register their marrow in 2009, with the help of her friends. became a global movement, reaching out to Asians across the United States and the Chinese-speaking regions of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, by utilizing social media.
The organization has since registered over 20,000 new donors and found 18 matches for blood cancer patients. On January 21, 2012, while at the hospital, Liang uploaded a video plea on YouTube asking Americans, particularly those of Chinese descent, to register for the marrow registry.
In the plea, Liang said:
The plea became a viral video after a posting on Reddit and has garnered some 380,000 views. This video also garnered the attention and advocacy of Asian American internet celebrities and musicians including Far East Movement, Wong Fu Productions, Kevjumba and the cast of White Frog, including Harry Shum Junior., Booboo Stewart, Bachelor's Degree Wong, Joan Chen and Amy Hill.
On February 5, 2012, as part of the Governor of Guam"s weekly address, Eddie Calvo publicly asked Guamanians to register in the marrow registry:
In June 2010, she went into remission after a battery of chemotherapy treatments.
One and a half years later, Liang relapsed in December 2011 and began treatment at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and participated in a clinical trial at the Doctor of Medicine Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. In June 2012, Liang found a 9/10 marrow match from a 29-year-old male. She received a marrow transplant on 5 September 2012 at the University of Texas Doctor of Medicine Anderson Cancer Center.
Liang died on September 12, 2012, six days after receiving a marrow transplant, owing to complications from chemotherapy.
Achievements
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Born
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Died
September 12, 2012 (aged 25) -
Nationality
United States -
Ethnicity