Suddenly diagnosed with terminal cancer at a very young age, Thủy Trương did not despair. She wanted to seize every possible opportunity to launch projects contributing to the cancer patient community.
One side effect of lung cancer treatment is pain in the roof of the mouth, which can make speaking difficult. Yet many people probably do not notice this when listening to Thủy Trương, known as Vietnam's startup queen, speak fluently.
Having moved to the US with her family at 17, Thủy Trương returned to Vietnam after earning a bachelor's degree in Computer Science at the University of Southern California in 2009.
Returning to Vietnam, she founded two companies: frozen-yogurt business Parallel Frozen Yogurt and Greengar, the developer of Tappy, an application connecting people in the same location that was acquired by Weeby.co for millions of USD. After selling the company, Thủy returned to the United States but continued sharing her experience and advising many Vietnamese startups.
Last year, she unexpectedly discovered she had terminal lung cancer. Rather than giving in to panic and despair, the young woman established several projects to help people with cancer like herself face the disease and care for themselves better. These include Salt Cancer Initiative, an initiative supporting cancer patients by providing information, education and assistance to patients and their families in Vietnam.
“I once developed a rash as a side effect, so I added a note to the app advising the use of cold water because warm water would irritate the skin more. Other people undergoing treatment for lung cancer, as I am, can then know to avoid warm water.” — she said.
Recently, she also organized the competition Hack for Health the first for the University of Southern California. Thủy said: “One product we are pursuing throughout this hackathon is a mobile app that helps monitor and mitigate the side effects of cancer and cancer treatments.”
Hack for Health began as a collaborative project between Thủy Trương and the doctors treating her at the University of Southern California's Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. During a conversation with Dr. Nieva about monitoring cancer treatment using a Fitbit wristband, Thủy was excited to hear about similar research the university was conducting for cancer patients. Having organized many hackathons (24- to 48-hour programming challenges) in Vietnam, she quickly began working on the new project.
Attracting dozens of students and engineers to participate, Hack for Health was a resounding success. Over 2 sleepless days and nights from 7/4 to 9/4, dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, software engineers and designers turned many interesting ideas into reality. One standout was Storyline, an app using computer vision to recognize images and help patients keep track of prescribed medicines. Users simply hold a medicine bottle up to their phone camera; Storyline records its ingredients, displays associated side effects and provides specific advice.
Speaking about herself in the present, Thủy said: “If God tells you that you have cancer, you cannot change that reality. It affects everyone equally, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, good or bad. Yet even when the battle is unavoidable, we can still learn to master and control it.”
Busy with personal and community projects, the young woman battling cancer still maintains her habit of hiking and picnicking every weekend and taking longer trips whenever possible. Recently, she also became one of the main subjects of the documentary She Started It by directors Nora Poggi and Insiyah Saeed. She Started It premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October last year and received much public acclaim.
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Chương trình liên quan tại YUP Education: X-Startup – khóa học khởi nghiệp «Khởi Chánh Nghiệp» · The Journey – lộ trình phát triển doanh nhân
