Best Friends Launch Podcast Series to Help Women with Breast Cancer Navigate Dating, Sex and More

Melissa Berry and Deltra are using their experiences with breast cancer to empower other women.

The two have only known each other for just over a year, but they grew close very quickly thanks to one shared experience: a breast cancer diagnosis.

Berry, now 53, was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer when she was 42 years old, and 38-year-old Deltra (who prefers to go only by her first name) got the same diagnosis when she was 33.

Berry, a fashion and beauty publicist by trade, wanted to stay true to herself throughout her treatment, and didn't see many spaces to help her with that mission.

"When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I didn't need to look like a supermodel, I just wanted to look like myself," she told PEOPLE exclusively. "Once I knew [I would get] a bilateral mastectomy and chemotherapy, and that meant losing my hair and my breasts and my lashes, I was like, 'How am I ever going to feel like a woman again?'"

She founded what she dubbed "the Vogue of breast cancer" in Cancer Fashionista, an online resource where women can find beauty tips, self-care products and other essentials they need "before, during and after treatment." Cancer Fashionista was so successful that Berry saw there was a need for more positive and uplifting platforms, so she took the same concept and created her podcast, Dear Cancer, I'm Beautiful where she merges the conversation about "life-saving cancer treatment with fashion, beauty and wellness advice."

Deltra recalls her diagnosis upending her life at a shockingly quick pace: "Within a month timeframe, I went from getting a cancer diagnosis to getting a stage four cancer diagnosis before I started getting treatment because it had already spread to my liver," she tells PEOPLE. "A lot of people say that no one goes through cancer completely unchanged, and I never say that I'm grateful for cancer — I don't necessarily feel a need to look for a silver lining — but in my case, it definitely nudged me to make changes in my life."

Following her diagnosis, Deltra left her 10-year marriage and dedicated her time to finding communities that she could not only lean on, but also pour into. She began her advocacy journey as as a member of the For the Breast of Us inaugural class of Baddie Ambassadors and has since worked with organizations such as Touch, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance (BBCA), Project Life, Bright Spot Network, and Cactus Cancer Society.

It was through her work that she crossed paths with Berry, who was looking for a guest willing to talk about dating and cancer. Berry recalled asking a mutual friend, "'Do you know someone who would be willing to talk about dating and metastatic breast cancer?' And before I even got the words out, she was like, 'Deltra!'"

The two connected ahead of their taping, and immediately developed a friendship that went beyond the podcast episode. Now they're working together on the podcast series Empowered Intimacy: Getting Your Sexy Back After Breast Cancer, which "addresses the need for sexual health and intimacy support for breast cancer survivors."

It's fun, lighthearted and above all else, it serves as an important reminder that women, like Berry and Deltra, can still enjoy their lives fully, even while still being treated.

For Deltra, who had not dated for a while, she had questions she wanted to answer.

"I had been married for a long time and I had five children. I was the stay-at-home partner my entire marriage," she said. "[Dating] didn't feel like a real option. And so I know for many people with MBC, they feel that way ... Because even though we're young, many of us end up not being able to work anymore. It's a very real thing to just feel like, 'Well, who will want me now? Who will want to deal with all of this and appointments and the body changes and the sexual issues to navigate?' "

Empowered Intimacy aims to address those worries and share stories and tips from women who have lived through those same experiences.

"I just wanted all those women to have someone and tell them, 'Someone will want you. And even if you didn't immediately find someone who did, you have to want more for yourself,'" Deltra says.

Adds Berry, "Breast cancer and sex are two terms you don't hear together a lot. And I think sex and intimacy and dating are hard enough without cancer, but you add cancer to it and it's whole other universe. And unless you've had cancer or breast cancer, it's very hard to understand some of the challenges that we face."

"What I wanted to give [was a place] where you can listen in on two best friends talking about how do you get through breast cancer, dating and intimacy, because there is no book," she continues. "I wanted to fill a void for information and for just a real conversation that others can really feel, first of all, that they're not alone and we offer solutions."

Empowered Intimacy: Getting Your Sexy Back After Breast Cancer launched on Sept. 30 and is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as well as YouTube.

And in the spirit of the podcast, read on for some beauty and wellness products the two swear by for sexual health and feeling more like yourself.