For Lauren Mae, now 19 years old, her cancer diagnosis came just when her adult life was poised for launch. “August 23, 2019, that's a day I will never forget,” she says. “That's the day my life flipped upside down.”
A recent high school grad, she was spending her “super busy” summer volunteering at church and foster camps, and preparing to start college. It was then that she developed a “very weird and dry random cough that lingered for a few months and just would not go away.”
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The diagnosis was primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, a rare form of non Hodgkins lymphoma.So instead of prepping for college, she was facing down a medical battle but it was one that she was well prepared to fight, given her innate positivity, her faith, and a deeply committed support team of friends and family.
“Getting diagnosed with cancer is very difficult but getting diagnosed with cancer as a young adult is even more hard,” she says. “Because as you're watching your friends move on to college, you're stuck in the hospital, losing your hair, losing your strength, your energy.”
Still, she says, she found her strength in her faith and loved ones. “Trust god's timing, because I really think he places the people and the friends in your life at the time you need them the most,” she says.
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And her loved ones rallied around her fiercely. “My friends and family and my church family were such a huge part of my support system when I was sick. My best friend cut her hair super short in support for me and all of my guy friends shaved their heads for me as well, which just made me feel so good,” she says. “It really just showed that they were there for me on the good and the bad days and so I'm forever grateful for them doing that for me.”
The “Good Things” About Her Diagnosis
Of course, she says, “I don't think cancer is a good thing, but I think a lot of good things can come from it.”
For her, the good things include basking in the love of her community and a chance to see the world with new eyes.
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“It has definitely changed my perspective and my appreciation for life and I'm forever grateful for that,” she says. “I said no to opportunities before because I was scared. But having gone through what I've been through, it's really opened my eyes to just take risks.”
And as a survivor, she plans to live her life to the fullest. “Because if you stay comfortable in life, you're not going to learn or grow,” she says. “And life is all about learning and growing.”
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