To her family, she was Henrietta Lacks – a wife, mother, friend, but to scientists, she became known as HeLa. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks takes us on a journey of discovery about Henrietta; her life, her family and her cells.
Months before she died, cancerous cells were taken from Henrietta’s cervix – without her knowledge – and became one of the most important tools in medicine. They became the first immortal human tissue grown in culture – with a whole new generation produced every 24 hours – and have been used to develop the polio vaccine, uncover secrets about cancer and viruses and helped lead the way in in vitro fertilisation, cloning and gene mapping.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has won numerous awards – including the Wellcome Trust Book Prize in 2010 – so when it arrived on my desk at work I was really keen to read it.
It looked plain and simple, but the image of Henrietta Lacks – one of the only ones her family had – all battered and crinkled drew me in. I have a passing interest in all things cancer-related – my gran died aged 54 from metastatic breast cancer and I thought it would be interesting to read about the origin on cells that had been used in cancer research.
It was interesting to learn about Henrietta and her family but most of the book focussed on what happened after Henrietta’s death – what happened to her cells, how they were used in science and the lives of her family afterwards.
I like the way Skloot becomes a character in her own story as she becomes intertwined in the lives of the Lacks family while sifting through medical and research records and conducting countless interviews with Henrietta’s family and friends
The book was clearly instigated by curiosity, but became a labour of love and took the author 10 years to research and write, but the picture she painted of Henrietta’s sad story and the struggle of the family she left behind is touching.
It was really heart-breaking to read about how her children suffered while they were growing up – dropping out of school and coping with the loss of their mother when they were all so young. All the while, science was progressing thanks to the aggressive cancer cells of their mother – not that they knew about it. When the family were told about the existence of HeLa cells, they didn’t really understand what they were or how they were being used – which only added to their misery.
I did enjoy the book, but for me it didn’t live up to the hype surrounding it. Maybe – because I’ve never worked with the cells they don’t hold as much meaning for me as those more involved in science. A girl I work with who has worked in a lab with HeLa cells absolutely loved the book and has been recommending it to everyone left, right and centre. Its an interesting and heart-wrenching story and I would recommend it.
