Why a Booktrail?
1950s: The story surrounding Henrietta Lacks is quite like anything else you will ever read. It might not be far from the truth to state that she was the most important person who ever lived.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
What you need to know before your trail
A physical part of her body has saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives, and improved the lives of countless others. A sample of cancerous cells was taken from her cervix. Henrietta’s cells would continually divide when cultured. These cells were named ‘HeLa’ using the first two letters of the forename and surname of Henrietta Lacks. The cells soon became famous worldwide but Henrietta herself remained unknown.
HeLa cells have given us our future. They are the most researched and tested human cells in existence. All of us have benefited from the medical advances made using them . But no one asked Henrietta ‘s family for permission or given her credit until now.
Travel Guide
Baltimore 1951 – Henrietta Lacks, was admitted into hospital with an exceptionally invasive and aggressive cancer. As a poor young black woman, Henrietta Lacks lived and died at a time when scientific research wasn’t governed by the need to get permission/consent from the donors and their families who would provide tissue and samples from them. In fact some hospitals often used to act as research laboratories but they people they harvested samples from were never thought of as people or their contribution alluded to.
Rebecca Skloot painstakingly researched this amazing woman’s story thanks to her daughter Deborah Lacks. This is one remarkable story of Baltimore and scientific discovery.
Streetview Maps
A) MD- Baltimore Hospital
D) Virginia -Lackstown - St Matthew Baptist Church
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