![]() When she first learned about HeLa on a college course aged 16, the teacher mentioned in passing that these cells came from a black woman, and she started to wonder then about the person behind the story. Understandably they feel a lot of anger at this injustice. But her children have spent their lives in low waged jobs and on welfare, unable to afford basic health insurance. ![]() Many of the scientific breakthroughs that have been made using HeLa cells are hugely profitable. Often referred to as HeLa cells, cells with their origins in the original sample are still being used in medical and scientific research today, nearly sixty years on. However, a sample of her cancer cells taken the same year lived on, grew and reproduced. In John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, in October 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a mother of five children, died of cervical cancer at the age of 31. Summary: An accessible and fascinating work of creative non-fiction about the real woman behind a medical breakthrough and her family, that raises important issues about medical ethics, healthcare, race, class, money and more. ![]()
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