When people found out about her diagnosis, many stopped contacting her, others took months to reply to her messages, struggled to talk to her or treated her fate as a foregone conclusion.
"When people hear the word cancer, they just don't know what to say. They go silent but it's then when having a conversation matters most," she said.
"Having a conversation makes you feel normal and it's people, not the cancer drugs and treatment, that get you through it."
Now, more than a year later, the 22-year-old has written a book about dealing with and talking about the subject and is trying to raise enough money to get it published.
The book, called Cancer and Other Shit, is for cancer patients, showing them how they can give people around them permission to talk about it.
It's also a how-to guide for their friends, family, even strangers, who can sometimes say all the wrong things at the wrong time.
Miss Wepa wrote and designed the book herself and took all the photographs featured.
In the book, she likens cancer to a balloon.
"When the C-word is mentioned in conversation the mood shifts and is instantly filled with tension, and without the right amount of support we'll either pop or deflate," she wrote.
The book was inspired by a promise she made to herself to take something positive out of her experience with cancer and to help others, she said.
Miss Wepa said she believed people found cancer hard to talk about because it was associated with death.
"Yes some people die from cancer, but with today's technology a lot more people are surviving. It's important that people don't treat a patient as if they're dying."
Miss Wepa said she hoped the book would help society engage more with people with cancer.
"Never be afraid to say the word cancer ... cancer doesn't define us and it doesn't affect our sense of humour either.
"Talk about it, even laugh about it, it's better than saying nothing at all."
She encouraged people who felt awkward talking about cancer to just tell a patient that, rather than remaining silent or breaking off contact. Communication was easier after that, she said.
Miss Wepa said writing the book was a way to gather her thoughts and help her heal, as well as contributing to her major project for the final year of her university degree.
Now cancer-free and with the book completed, she has entered a competition to win enough money to get her book published.
The main prize of $10,000 in the Jennian Homes Birthday Competition would cover that cost. To vote, visit www.fillthesilenceproject.com or, if you think you can help Miss Wepa get her book published, you can email her on lauren.wepa@gmail.com.