“When Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951), an African-American mother of five who migrated from the tobacco farms of Virginia to poorest neighborhoods of Baltimore, died at the tragic age of 31 from cervical cancer, she didn’t realise she’d be the donor of cells that would create the HeLa immortal cell line — a line that didn’t die after a few cell divisions — making possible some of the most seminal discoveries in modern medicine. Though the tumour tissue was taken with neither her knowledge nor her consent, the HeLa cell was crucial in everything from the first polio vaccine to cancer and AIDS research. To date, scientists have grown more than 20 tons of HeLa cells.”

The part that bothered me was the bit in red above. It also bothered her daughter Deborah, who never knew her mother, but along with writer Rebecca Skloot investigated the background surrounding this amazing donation. The story around harvested cells has been made into a bestselling book called The Immortal Life of henrietta Lacks. “The book, one of the decade’s most excellent and ambitious science-and-so-much-more reads, is currently being made into an HBO movie by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball.”

You can read more  HERE.

I suppose we only see the world around us in bits and rarely do have we the opportunity to see it all together and understand it. If we could maybe this story might make more sense.

Although we still don’t have a cure for cancer – the HeLa cell spawned all the research and development in Bio Technology that began in the 80s and continues today.

In this short video Rebecca Skloot talks about her book.

This video tells the whole amazing story. More videos HERE