On Monday, Janet Liang’s personal plea for a bone marrow donor to treat her acute lymphoblastic leukemia had received 17,625 views on YouTube. Today the view count is up to nearly 260,000.
Word is spreading about the UCLA grad student’s race against time to find a bone marrow donor, but there’s more work to be done. This stage of Liang’s fight is not complete until she finds a matching bone marrow donor. Here’s how you can help:
- Registering for “Team Janet” is easy and takes about ten minutes through the National Marrow Donor Program. You’ll need a largely clean bill of health.
- Liang’’s need is specific since she’s Asian American. According to the Asian American Donor Program (AADP), the odds of a minority patient finding a matching unrelated donor are close to one in a million. Those who qualify can cut the line and reach Janet faster by reading about where you can donate to the AADP.
- Asian American residents living in Liang’s home state of California can find a list of drive centers through asianmarrow.org.
You can also help Liang by continuing to spread the word and stay in tune with what’s going on. The Facebook page Helping Janet Find Her Perfect Match is a great aggregater of information and press clips. There’s also helpingjanet.com, a website with information about Liang’s story, leukemia, and information on how to help. The website is almost halfway towards its goal of registering 15,000 bone marrow donors.
Update: The Daily Dot reported, based on its experience with the National Marrow Donor Program’s website, that it cost $52 to register. However, a representative from Helping Janet tells us that there is no cost to register. Instead, registrants may be asked for a donation. The NMDP’s FAQ states: “Sometimes new members are asked to pay some of the registration costs when they join.”