Mardi Kaplan was first diagnosed with breast cancer at 37. She is now living with Stage IV MBC. In this episode, Mardi reads her essay “You Were There” from the 2023 “MBC: Lessons Learned” issue of Wildfire. Mardi’s piece is about friendship and the ones that go before us at each step of the cancer road, paving the way. April and Mardi talk about having conversations about death, living in joy while embracing mortality, the skewed perceptions of what illness may or may not look like, and friendship found in community. They will also discuss the choice of being private or public about cancer after a diagnosis. This episode contains explicit language.

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