VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When Porsche Richardson walked into her first support group meeting for young breast cancer survivors, she didn't expect to leave with a lifelong friend.

"It was about a week or so before I was going to get my reconstruction surgery," Richardson said, after the Virginia Beach mother was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma at 44, had undergone a double mastectomy, and was still processing what it meant to live after breast cancer.

But that's when she met Jennifer Nguyen, another survivor, diagnosed at 39 with invasive ductal carcinoma, navigating life after breast cancer.

"I wasn't quite sure that we would become friends," Richardson said. She was... not very talkative to me at that time."

Nguyen said she remembers feeling overwhelmed and unsure how to connec

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