On 24 August 2009, during her fourth year at UCLA, Liang was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. That year, she founded
Helping Janet, a
grassroots initiative aimed at mobilizing ethnic minority communities to register their marrow in 2009, with the help of her friends. Helping Janet 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. 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 Jr.,
Booboo Stewart,
BD 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: ==Death==