Amador Valley Alum Needs Bone Marrow Transplant

By Meg Hosterman

Janet Liang is a 25-year-old Pleasanton native who embodies hope and ambition in every way.

But unlike other recent graduates, she isn’t dreaming of attending graduate school or embarking upon professional aspirations.

Instead, Liang is fighting for her life. First diagnosed in August 2009 with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia while finishing her International Studies degree at UCLA, Liang underwent chemotherapy at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, and went into remission.

Last December, Liang relapsed, and after finding out that her younger brother was not a match, she was told she had until April to find an unrelated bone marrow donor.  

Liang splits her time between chemotherapy and other grueling treatments at UCSF Hospital, spending time with visitors, and sitting in front of her laptop scrambling to organize marrow registration drives and compel strangers to help increase her chances of survival.

A humanitarian at heart, with a dream to become a teacher, Liang’s subtle yet evocative blog entries and Youtube videos illustrate a young woman who has refused to back down though the odds against her; but she needs our community’s help.  

Liang cannot afford to have one person who is able to register as a bone marrow donor to ignore her plea. Bone marrow matches are dependent upon matching tissue types rather than blood type, and since Liang is Chinese-American, an Asian donor is most likely to be her match.

Since people of Asian descent are vastly underrepresented in the bone marrow registry, Asians are particularly encouraged to register, though anyone could end up being her match.  

Registration is easy, fast, and free at www.marrow.org.

The process is simple, and there are no obligations. Though there are many misconceptions about marrow donation, it is a safe procedure for healthy donors.

If you want to learn more about Janet’s struggle and bone marrow donation, please go to her website at www.helpingjanet.com or visit her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/helpingjanet.