Henrietta Lacks was an african- american mother of five born in 1920, working as a tobacco farmer with her family, living in poverty from an early age. She is also the unknowing cause of life- saving pharmaceuticals, medical tests and research that has been conducted due to her unconsented donation of her malignant cervical tumour, which has been discovered as the first immortal cell in 1951.
When Henrietta Lacks developed a cervical malignant tumour as a complication from HPV, she was forced to visit John Hopkins hospital, due to the segregation in place at the time. She was treated with radium tube inserts and was discharged following an X ray, but would come back for treatment days later. During this time, George Gey, a doctor, took a sample of her tumour without her consent or knowledge, which was found to be able to survive and replicate outside the human body in many conditions. This was a new discovery at the time, and caused George Gey to use these cells to manufacture an immortal cell line, named HeLa, after their donor, to be used for research.
These cells have played an instrumental role in diagnosing cancer, testing pharmaceuticals, and countless other remarkable discoveries due to their immortality and endless replication. HeLa has visited space, eradicated Polio, created the HPV vaccine, discovered what causes cellular aging, and saved countless lives for 70 years, and many more to come due to the unknowing donation of Henrietta Lacks.
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