10 Most Bizarre Ways To Become Famous

Henrietta Lacks also became famous despite not having done anything in life to warrant it. In her case, however, it was because she had such an extraordinary body.

No, not like that, you monsters. Henrietta was born into poverty in Virginia in 1920, but tragically developed cervical cancer and died at the age of thirty-one, too poor for a gravestone and leaving five children to cope with the world without their mother.

However, through various dubious shenanigans, cells from her cervix landed on the desk on cancer researcher George Otto Gey at Johns Hopkins University, who found that her cells did things he’d never seen human cells do.

Henrietta’s phenomenal remains changed the course of medical history. Back in those days, medical researchers had significant trouble keeping human cells alive long enough to be useful in any kind of research: but Gey was successfully able to use Henrietta’s samples to grow the first ever ‘immortal’ human cells.

From that day on, ‘HeLa’ cells, as the results have become known, have been instrumental in AIDS and cancer research worldwide. The year after Henrietta’s untimely death, the worst polio epidemic in recorded history took place in America: HeLa was vital in developing a vaccine in 1954 that conquered the disease. The year after that, HeLa cells were the first ever human cells to be successfully cloned.

In 2010, freelance medical and science writer Rebecca Skloots wrote a fascinating, beautiful book on the lady, her life and her legacy, entitled The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. Upon reading it, an Atlanta medical professor donated a headstone to the Lacks family that read:

Henrietta Lacks, August 01, 1920 – October 04, 1951. In loving memory of a phenomenal woman, wife and mother who touched the lives of many. Here lies Henrietta Lacks (HeLa). Her immortal cells will continue to help mankind forever. Eternal Love and Admiration, From Your Family.