Watch above: Breast cancer survivor Emily Helck documents year of chemotherapy in timelapse video (Emily Helck/YouTube)
TORONTO – A time-lapse video of a breast cancer survivor recording her chemotherapy treatment for an entire year is gaining momentum.
Diagnosed in July of 2012, Emily Helck, 29, said she began to take a photo of herself every week to document her physical changes.
The series of photographs chronicle her treatment from September 21, 2012 to September 21, 2013.
“I feel like the girl in the photos made it through pretty unscathed, though the look on her face sometimes makes me sad,” wrote Helck on her personal blog The Real Tumours of New Jersey.
Prior to her treatment, Helck had a double mastectomy—a surgery that removes both breasts, partially or completely, usually to treat breast cancer.
In an interview with Yahoo! News, Helck said she hopes her physical changes could inspire others who are embarking on the same journey.
In an online post accompanying her YouTube video, Helck also wrote that she still isn’t completely sure why she took these photos but that “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?”
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