Manasvi Koul was not supposed to have suffered a relapse of Hodgkin's lymphoma, but she did. When the disease progressed, doctors weren't sure she could recover, but she did.

In the worst of times during the illness, doctors and nurses said they didn't expect to hear laughter from her hospital room, but they did.

Now Koul, 18, is planning for a heavy workload this fall, when she enters the prestigious Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania. She might not have chosen to keep nurturing the foundation she started, aimed at saving others' lives.

But she did.

"The foundation is what keeps me going," says Koul, a recent graduate of Marvin Ridge High School in southwestern Union County. "I'm committed to helping prevent others from going through what I faced."

Koul faced death.

She needed a stem cell transplant in 2007, as Hodgkin's lymphoma sapped her strength. But Koul, then living with her family in Ottawa, Ontario, discovered that stem cell donors are few and far between for racial minorities. Born in India, Koul eventually had to rely on her own stem cells. Doctors removed them from her body and reintroduced them after treatment.

At first, the treatment didn't seem to be working. Koul's health continued to slip.

In December 2007, she and her parents - Anjali and Vijay - came to visit family members in the Charlotte area.

"We thought it might be the last chance for Manasvi to see the family," Anjali Koul says.

During the visit, she began feeling better. After returning home, she got good news from the doctors: Her blood was healthier. The Kouls decided maybe North Carolina was a better place for Manasvi, so they put their house up for sale and moved.

"One doctor in Canada said, 'You cannot tell me that moving to North Carolina will cure you,' " Koul recalls with a laugh. "But here we are."

Doctors say she has beaten the illness, although she still takes medication to ward off relapse.

Perhaps her health would have improved in Ottawa, but Manasvi Koul didn't stop to think about it much. By autumn 2008, she launched LIVEbeyond, her foundation to raise awareness of bone marrow transplants and the need for more donors among racial minorities. That effort has resulted in a website; several TV and radio interviews; and more than $500,000 raised to help patients at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, where she received much of her care while sick with Hodgkin's.

During that time, she thrived in the classroom, compiling a grade-point average in the low 5s, winning several academic awards and earning scholarship offers from several colleges and universities. Marvin Ridge High School Principal Bill Cook calls her "an inspiration."

There are some things she can't do anymore. She had to drop karate, because the medicine she takes can cause bruising. And Hodgkin's caused some damage to her lungs, so she shelved rowing.

Instead, her free time is spent on LIVEbeyond. Koul has used social networking to build interest in bone marrow donations. Her website allows people to trade stories and register to donate.

"Not being able to find a bone marrow match made it more difficult for me to survive," she says. "All groups except Caucasians are under-represented on the registry."

She and friends are working on a major fundraising program in August, tentatively scheduled for the Matthews Community Center.

"It will be a Bollywood variety show - comedy, music, dance," she says. "The money is needed. It costs $100 for a marrow test."

Don't bet against Koul's ability to organize and succeed. When she was in fifth grade, her teacher called Anjali to report that Manasvi was charging fellow students $2 each to create personal websites.

"I should have known then that she was a natural for business," says Anjali, who came to the United States with her husband with little money. Both found a way to work their way through college in New York.

Vijay Koul says his daughter's illness was "a life-transforming event. What happened to her was a miracle. There was a reason for it."

Koul, who says the illness strengthened her spiritual life (she is Hindu), says she now realizes "everyone will die one day."

"But if you spend all your time worrying about how much time you have left, you're wasting it. I won't waste my time. I'll make the most of my opportunities to learn, and to help others."