Woman's breast cancer time lapse video goes viral

NEW JERSEY (WABC) -- A very honest and open video tracks a year in the life of a breast cancer patient.

The woman in the video is from New Jersey.

After posting the video online she's getting national attention.

The video is extraordinary because this young woman manages to capture an entire year in one minute.

It has gone viral not because it's terribly shocking or horrible, instead, it's a time lapse of cancer and each frame is part of her journey.

Within seconds, the young Emily Helck has her hair and then loses it.

In this video, it's several self-portraits per-week over an entire year of her treatment for breast cancer.

All of it is squeezed into just one minute. One, very powerful minute that started on her small blog, but resonated in a way Emily never expected.

"How many people have seen it?" Eyewitness News asked.

"Over a hundred thousand, as of this morning," Helck said.

Emily was only 28 when she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer.

She had a bilateral mastectomy in July of 2012 and began this video at the start of her chemotherapy and radiation.

You can see the subtle complications as the photos flash by; the redness in her skin, the repeated times Emily needs drains, after five different surgeries and infections, the drains were well-documented.

"I hated them so much at first and now I'm like, I'm at peace with them. I don't have one right now, but you learn to love, learn to love the drain," Helck said.

What's so special about the video? Truthfully, it's Emily.

"It's not about glamorous selfies, and it's not about, look how terrible this is, it's destroyed my body," Helck said.

It's her way of capturing such a difficult journey in its most mundane moments.

"Most of the time when I was taking the pictures, Ii was watching 'Madmen' or playing with the cat, I was still the same person," Helck said.

She is a person, not just a patient, with her cancer gone.

"But the emotional part of it has these echoes and it just keeps going on, it's a journey, and it's not over, really," Helck said.

Emily has struggled with reconstruction, her left breast had complications after the radiation.

She'll still need at least two more surgeries to put in a permanent implant.

She hopes her video proves that while cancer is a struggle, it's not always horrific.

So you shouldn't be afraid to reach out to a friend or relative going through it.

Watch Emily's full time lapse video here: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=9271178

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cancer, breast cancer, health news, stacey sager

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