Breast cancer brought these Georgia moms together. Now they have a podcast.

They didn’t know each other at the time, but two young Georgia moms in their early 30s were getting double mastectomies at the same hospital on the same day to remove the cancer in their breasts.

In 2023, 32-year old Lauren Norris felt pain while nursing her youngest of three children. Soon afterward, her OB-GYN found a lump in her right breast during a routine breast exam.

Meanwhile, 13 miles away, 34-year-old Brittney Powell also discovered a lump in her right breast during a self-exam.

They both ended up at City of Hope Cancer Center Atlanta in Newnan, recovering in neighboring rooms. Mutual friends introduced them at the start of their treatment, and they started walking the halls together, leaning on each other for support during their recovery.

“We became each other’s lifeline during that time. We learned each other’s routines: What day she had chemo. What day I had chemo. We would check in on each other,” said Powell, who had only heard of older adults with the disease.

“Rarely did I find someone that was my age.”

A year after their surgeries, the two moms turned that friendship into a podcast, “Boobie Banter,” where they share their experiences as young mothers battling cancer.

“It is becoming more and more apparent that young women are being diagnosed with this, and somebody needs to talk about it,” Norris said. “We wanted to create a safe place to talk about that and to share what it was like to do treatment with children, and what we learned — sometimes the hard way — and try to navigate an incredibly difficult illness with children.”

Giving young moms a voice

Powell said the idea for the podcast came from their speech therapist. Both women experienced “chemo brain,” or cancer-related cognitive impairment, a common side effect they wanted to better understand and share with others.

But the podcast became about more than cognitive changes. The two friends wanted to reach other young women who might feel isolated during treatment.

“There’s so many young women that feel alone during this time,” she said. “The goal is to just be an advocate and to help others. Let them know they are not alone and their feelings are not invalid.”

Norris said there have been support groups for older women with breast cancer, as well as general cancer support groups. But she said those settings don’t always feel like a comfortable fit for young women.

“You can imagine speaking in a room full of men about your breasts can be a little challenging, and (women can feel) vulnerable,” Norris said.