A Letter to… Henrietta

We would like to invite you to write a letter to Henrietta Lacks as a creative response to her story.

Your letter could be about her life story, maybe her childhood or her children? Alternatively, your letter to Henrietta could be about the research that her cells have enabled. It could also be a letter to share with her who you are, and how reading her story has made you feel.

We have included some starter lines (below) to help you write your letter. Above all, we would love you to be creative in your writing. You can write your letter online and send it to us by email- or if you write by pen, or pencil, you can take a photograph of the letter and send it to us. Another idea is to record a video of you reading your letter to Henrietta- and send this to us too!

Send your creative responses to CambridgeFestival@admin.cam.ac.uk with the subject line A Letter to Henrietta* and your letter may appear on this website and on our social media channels.

Dear Henrietta,

You can write whatever you like in your letter to Henrietta. However, if you would like some prompts we have suggested the following:

Start by telling Henrietta a little about who you are, where you live, and how you came across her story.

Dear Henrietta, my name is… I discovered your story through the Festival book club.

Share with her what part of her story you were most interested in.

I was really interested to learn about your family and the places where you lived.

Tell Henrietta about how her story makes you feel. Does it make you sad, angry, intrigued, inspired?

Parts of your story made me feel very sad- especially about how you was treated- but I was also inspired by how your cells were used to enable so many new treatments.

Talk with Henrietta about what you learned about the social history of her family.

Reading the book I learned how your family were share farmers- and the very hard circumstances that they lived in.

Write to her about the research that her cells enabled- and the difference the HeLa research has made to you or to the world we live in today.

I wish you could have known how many lives you saved, as a result of treatments developed from research on your cells.

You could finish by sharing with Henrietta one wish for the future. This could be something you hope to do after reading the book. It could be a wish for which treatments future research into the cells lead to.

I want to let you know I will continue to educate myself about your life- and those of other people who had similar upbringings to you.

These prompts are a guide for you - please use all , some, or none in your letter. You really can write whatever you like to Henrietta.

We are really looking forward to hearing what you have to say to Henrietta.

Creative responses from

Our Community

Your ‘ A Letter to… Henrietta’ creative responses will be shared here.

Send us your letter by emailing us*

CambridgeFestival@admin.cam.ac.uk

*Please note: by sending your letters to us, you give permission for your work to be shared on our websites or social media channels.