Anne With An E star Miranda McKeon has revealed the ‘mental health effects’ of battling stage three cancer at age 19.
The actress was about to enter her sophomore year of college in 2021 when she felt a lump in her right breast and was diagnosed with the illness.
She underwent a punishing course of treatments, including a double mastectomy, another surgery to remove multiple lymph nodes, chemotherapy and radiation.
Now, she is 22 years old, the disease is in remission and she is ‘definitely eager to get back into the industry,’ Miranda shared.
‘I just never thought I’d be this happy again,’ she said, baring her soul about the emotional impact of her cancer battle to People.
Anne With An E star Miranda McKeon has revealed the ‘mental health effects’ of battling stage three cancer at age 19
Read More
19-year-old Anne With an E star who was diagnosed with 'one in a million' stage 3 breast cancer reveals she is undergoing a double mastectomy: 'After this I will be cancer free'
‘The mental health effects that come along with cancer diagnoses can be so heavy. I would go to bed every night thinking about it,’ shared Miranda, who is writing a book about her ordeal.
While being treated for cancer, she also entered therapy and began taking an antidepressant that she still uses to this day.
‘I never thought I’d reach the point where I wouldn’t think about having cancer every day of my life. But now I do have days where I don’t think about it,’ she revealed.
After acting Off-Broadway as a child, Miranda enrolled in college at the University Of Southern California, but her freshman year was virtual because of COVID-19.
For her sophomore year in 2021, she was finally allowed to attend school in person – only to feel a lump in her right breast during summer vacation.
‘I kind of started freaking out. I was taught growing up that when you feel a lump in your breast that’s indicative of having breast cancer,’ she said.
Although she went in for tests, the doctor tried to comfort her, telling her she was unlikely to have cancer because of her age and the fact it did not run in her family.
However, when she traveled to San Francisco to attend a summer agriculture program, she received a text from her doctor.
Miranda, who beat her cancer into remission in 2022, is pictured in an Instagram photo posted from New York City last week
She underwent a punishing course of treatments, including a double mastectomy, another surgery to remove lymph nodes, chemotherapy and radiation
Now, she is 22 years old, the disease is in remission and she is ‘definitely eager to get back into the industry,’ Miranda shared; pictured with the cast of Anne With An E
‘I was like: “Huh, that’s odd, never do doctors really text you.” She said I had cancer and that it had already spread to my lymph nodes,’ Miranda remembered.
‘It was a really surreal moment. I immediately got emotional, and I remember getting my mom on the phone right away.’
During her treatments – including the double-mastectomy, the lymph node removal, eight rounds of chemotherapy and 25 sessions of radiation – she experienced ‘days where I felt like I was completely melting or falling apart.’
The physical impact of the chemotherapy included pain ‘coursing through my legs, neck and back’ as well as fatigue – a sensation that also affected her mentally.
‘As a person who likes to push myself to my limits, that really crushed me. All I wanted to do was lie in bed, but everything hurt the most when I was dormant — so I really had to push myself,’ said Miranda.
She also had to deal with the psychological fallout of the hair loss caused by the chemotherapy, while continuing to conduct her college social life.
‘My hair was such a huge part of my identity. I really love who I am, and I love connecting with new people – but I felt like I wasn’t able to show up as who I wanted them to see. It added so much insecurity. I hated going out to frat parties in a wig.’
She was able to lean on her friends who helped ‘make sure my fake hairline was straight – and didn’t make my forehead look ginormous. But I just felt like I was in a totally different realm than the rest of my peers, and that was super isolating.’
She also had to deal with the psychological fallout of the hair loss caused by the chemotherapy, while continuing to conduct her college social life
‘I really love who I am, and I love connecting with new people – but I felt like I wasn’t able to show up as who I wanted them to see,’ she said: ‘I hated going out to frat parties in a wig’
Miranda also found herself freezing her eggs ahead of her chemotherapy, which in some cases can render the patient infertile.
‘That’s not something I ever thought I was going to have to do,’ she confessed. ‘But I wanted to give myself the option to have children in the future.’
She beat the cancer into remission by 2022, but her ‘brain fog’ only ‘really lifted’ in early 2023 as she began the second half of her junior year of college.
At that point, sporting a ‘short little Euro bob,’ she studied abroad for a semester in Rome and ‘felt so free and back to myself and truly ready for things to just pick back up. I felt normal, which was all I could have asked for.’
She drew strength from her family and moved back to the East Coast after college because that is where they live.
She beat the cancer into remission by 2022, but her ‘brain fog’ only ‘really lifted’ in early 2023 as she began the second half of her junior year of college
Miranda revealed the ‘little things that kind of ease my mind when I lay my head on the pillow’ – her dogs Bodhi and Kona, plus surfing, beach strolls and Pilates.
She has a boyfriend she has described ‘a really beautiful part of my life’ and is looking ahead to a return to show business.
In order to be fully prepared to reenter the world of the entertainment industry, she is currently enrolled in acting classes at Julliard.
‘There’s so much good happening in my life as a result of all the hardship. I’ve become acutely aware of the time that we have on this earth — and that’s something that I’m so grateful for,’ she reflected.
After her cancer went into remission, Miranda posted a candid Instagram post confessing that during her treatments, she felt her body had become a ‘ticking time bomb’ that ‘needed to be cured.’
However by March 2022, the time of her post, she was ‘slowly reclaiming my body,’ which she had come to regard as a ‘shiny golden gift.’