Young mother Lauren Candies Tarpley of Charleston, South Carolina was diagnosed at 34 with breast cancer. Today Lauren reads her piece “The Friends that Leave” from Wildfire Magazine’s 2021 “Community” issue. Lauren writes about the friendships that couldn’t stand up to cancer and what that taught her. April and Lauren will discuss friends that can’t handle the diagnosis, how long cancer things go on, or the changed person in cancer’s aftermath. They’ll also talk about parenting young kids through cancer, Lauren’s cancer advocacy as a young adult of color, the pandemic’s role in her post diagnosis friend connections, and what role her post-cancer lifestyle change of not drinking plays in her social life.
