Emily Helck, 29, told the story of her year undergoing breast cancer treatments in a YouTube video titled "One Year/One Minute." It went VIRAL, and with good reason.
October is officially Breast Cancer Awareness month, and her has aided worldwide efforts to find a cure for the disease.
"My average daily viewers were at, like, four," Helck told ABC News. "I thought maybe a few dozen people would watch it."
Helck posted the blog and video on Sept. 29, and has received more than 120,000 views since.
"The response has been really, really positive," she said. "There's been so much support and so many well wishes from people who've watched."
Read Emily Helck's full blog post and check out the video she created below:
Last September, when I started chemo, I also started taking a picture of myself every week. I was originally going to do this for the 12 weeks of Taxol. My Herceptin treatment (not technically chemo, but chemo-ish) was to last one year, so when Taxol ended I decided to keep going, and chronicle the full 52 weeks -- September 21, 2012 to September 21, 2013. That might actually be 53 weeks. Whatever. I went 21 to 21.
It's odd to look at this. I normally don't like looking at photos of myself. Um, particularly when I look like shit. But I feel, I don't know, separate from this person somehow, even though the last photos are from just a few days ago. I feel like the girl in the photos made it through pretty unscathed, though the look on her face sometimes makes me sad. A lot of people had it a lot worse. (I sort of hate it when other people say that to me, that "it could be worse," thing. I know they're trying to be comforting. But you know what? It could always be worse. My prognosis could be worse. I could have had to do harsher chemo. I could be going bankrupt. My dog could have run away. So yes, it could always be worse. But shit could be a lot better, too.)
I'm still not completely sure why I took these photos. At first it had to do with documenting the hair saga. But it wound up becoming about something else, too. The photos became hash marks scratched on the wall, marking time spent inhabiting the world of this disease. Every time I set up the tripod was another week down. Or was it another week lost?
Click here to visit Emily's blog. She is still battling cancer.
