By Emily,
My name is Emily and I am the Publicity and Media Director of Team Janet. After Janet was diagnosed with leukemia in 2009, she and her closest friends immediately set up a website to encourage people to register to be bone marrow donors and to promote awareness about the dearth of minority donors. I became involved by volunteering to help with registration drives in Northern California. After Janet went into remission in June 2010, Team Janet disbanded.
Janet’s relapse in December 2011 brought about the need for a larger, more cohesive team.
New volunteers were recruited, including a new CEO (as Janet herself does not have the energy to oversee the entire campaign), regional coordinators, web designers, photographers, and a media contact. All current team members are Janet’s personal friends and people she trusts. Some of us know each other well, and some of us have never met, but we are all in constant contact with one another.
Janet is a very shy person, which is why I was surprised to see how she publicly laid her emotions bare in her wrenching plea for help. She recorded and uploaded the video herself, without any input from her team, and the results were astounding. My heart nearly shattered when I saw the video, because Janet is someone I love, but I never thought the public would react just as strongly as I did. I was awed to see that Janet had the ability to touch the hearts of complete strangers.
One such stranger ingeniously uploaded Janet’s video to Reddit, and her video was featured on the front page. The “likes” on the Helping Janet Facebook page jumped to over 1,000 within that day. The Reddit post was the beginning of the swell of awareness, and I will forever be indebted to the man who launched us to large-scale Internet recognition. Another stranger, dancer/singer Victor Kim, used his Facebook, YouTube channel, and Twitter to promote Janet’s campaign. He hosted a bone marrow registry drive at UC Irvine and sold a song on iTunes as a fundraiser for Janet. Janet has never met Victor. No one from Team Janet reached out to him to ask for his help, but his feverish crusade to help Janet find her match is one that has inspired countless individuals to do the same.
Since the Reddit post, we have had thousands of people – ordinary citizens, celebrities, newspapers, radio stations, and television news – help promote our campaign. We now have over 8,700 likes on Facebook, and we are growing every day. We at Team Janet are so grateful for all the support, love, and prayers, but Janet still has not found her match, and she still needs help. Please continue to spread the word and encourage people to register, especially people of Chinese descent.
Please help us keep the momentum going and save Janet’s life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I met Janet in September 2005, the very beginning of our freshman year at UCLA, and we have been close friends ever since. I am the Media and Publicity Director of Team Janet, so if you have media inquiries, please contact me at helpingjanet[at]gmail.com.
