'It Was Personal.' After Tragedy, Physicist Devotes Career To Cancer Research
Hadiyah-Nicole Green lost the aunt and uncle who raised her to cancer. The loss inspired her to develop a cancer treatment using lasers. "I was born to do this," she tells her cousin at StoryCorps.
By the age of 4, Hadiyah-Nicole Green lost both her mother and her grandparents.
She was sent to live with her Aunt Ora Lee Smith and Uncle General Lee Smith in St Louis, Mo. But in her early 20s, both her aunt and uncle were diagnosed with cancer.
Green, who now works as an assistant professor in the surgery department
