Miranda McKeon, 22, Shares How Surviving Stage 3 Breast Cancer ‘Changed the Way I Live’ (Exclusive)
“There’s so much good happening in my life as a result of all the hardship," the actress tells PEOPLE
It was the end of May 2021, and actress Miranda McKeon had just finished her freshman year at the University of Southern California. Back home at her family’s beach house in Asbury Park, N.J., the then-19-year-old was celebrating with friends and looking forward to a fun summer when, as she was adjusting her bra, she brushed across a jelly-bean-size lump in her right breast that she’d never noticed before.
“I kind of started freaking out,” recalls Miranda, who’s best known for her role as Josie Pye in the Netflix series Anne with an E . “I was taught growing up that when you feel a lump in your breast that’s indicative of having breast cancer.”
She immediately scheduled an appointment with her doctor, who recommended an ultrasound and biopsy — and reassured her that the disease was extremely rare among women her age, especially given that she had no family history. A week later, as planned, McKeon flew to San Francisco for a summer program on farming. As the plane was taxiing to the gate, her phone lit up with a text from her doctor.
“I was like, ‘Huh, that’s odd, never do doctors really text you,’ ” says McKeon, who called her right back. “She said I had cancer and that it had already spread to my lymph nodes. It was a really surreal moment. I immediately got emotional, and I remember getting my mom on the phone right away.”
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Two hours later McKeon was on a flight back to New Jersey, where a battery of additional tests confirmed she had stage 3 breast cancer. Over the next seven months McKeon endured eight rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and 25 sessions of radiation — and says now that the grueling experience has changed her life for the better.
“There’s so much good happening in my life as a result of all the hardship,” says the now 22-year-old, who’s been cancer-free since February 2022 and currently lives in New York City. “I’ve become acutely aware of the time that we have on this earth — and that’s something that I’m so grateful for.”
According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is still extremely rare in women ages 15 to 19, with just two cases per million each year. “We don’t typically see breast cancer in that age group,” says Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, director of breast and gynecologic medical oncology at Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Care in New Jersey — and McKeon’s oncologist.
Still, the incidence of breast cancer in women under the age of 50 “is especially increasing,” with a 1 to 2 percent rise in recent years, says Teplinsky, adding that “about 10 percent of breast cancer cases will be in women under 45” in 2024.
“Women need to understand that yes, the incidence is rising but not to panic,” adds Teplinsky. “They should talk to their doctors about what their risk is, go for regular screenings and focus on lifestyle ways to reduce their breast cancer risk. These are all things to do to lower individual risk.”
Courtesy Miranda McKeon
For McKeon, encouraging other women to advocate for their health — and sharing her own story — has become a heartfelt mission since her recovery. “I felt so emotionally isolated,” says McKeon, who has more than 1.2 million followers on Instagram and TikTok and is working on a memoir about her cancer journey.
“Looking at other young women who I could identify with and seeing them go through treatment was truly one of the only things that got me through. I’ve seen and connected with so many more people who are getting this diagnosis at a young age,” she adds. “If I can give them some sort of hope or solace, nothing makes me happier.”
McKeon’s talent for connecting with people surfaced at an early age — and soon came alive onstage. “I’ve been theatrical my whole life,” says McKeon, who grew up in Ridgewood, N.J., with her parents, Paul and Jill McKeon — a reinsurance executive and yoga studio owner, respectively — and her older brother Sam. She was in sixth grade when, on a whim, she auditioned and won a role in the 2013 Off-Broadway production of Little Miss Sunshine.
“I was doing eight shows a week in the city,” she recalls. “It was such a super experience.”
At age 16 — after putting together an audition tape in her basement — she landed the part in Anne With an E and spent the next three years flying back and forth to Toronto for filming.
“I met some incredible friends and was challenged in my acting — it was amazing,” says McKeon, who, after the show ended in 2019, enrolled at USC to study communications.
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The COVID-19 pandemic had derailed her freshman year, so she was really looking forward to her sophomore year — and “the typical college things like parties” — when she learned she had breast cancer.
In the 10 days following her initial diagnosis — and ahead of her chemotherapy, which can cause infertility — McKeon underwent fertility treatments and a procedure to freeze her eggs.
“That’s not something I ever thought I was going to have to do. But I wanted to give myself the option to have children in the future,” says McKeon, who started the first of eight rounds of chemo in July 2021 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In late August she returned to her off-campus apartment at USC to take classes online while finishing her remaining four chemo sessions; Jill also moved out for two months for support. “My family bolstered me throughout,” says McKeon, “[and on] days where I felt like I was completely melting or falling apart.”
Her treatments — which involved two kinds of chemotherapy — took a heavy toll. In addition to excruciating bone pain “coursing through my legs, neck and back,” McKeon also suffered from severe fatigue. “As a person who likes to push myself to my limits, that really crushed me,” she says. “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.”
Courtesy Miranda McKeon
In many ways, losing her hair was just as challenging. “My hair was such a huge part of my identity,” says McKeon. “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.”
Her friends were incredibly supportive, fixing her wig before a night out “to make sure my fake hairline was straight — and didn’t make my forehead look ginormous,” she recalls. “But I just felt like I was in a totally different realm than the rest of my peers, and that was super isolating.”
She struggled with the emotional fallout as well. “The mental health effects that come along with cancer diagnoses can be so heavy,” says McKeon, who wrestled with anxiety over her treatments and fear of her cancer recurring. “I would go to bed every night thinking about it,” adds McKeon, who sought help through therapy and still takes an antidepressant.
“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.”
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In December 2021, following her chemo treatments, McKeon underwent a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction in San Francisco, where her doctors were located. She moved back home for six weeks to undergo radiation in New York, before returning to USC in March 2022 to finish her sophomore year. By that time she was cancer-free, but was still dealing with some of the less severe side effects from the radiation — using fragrance-free, natural moisturizers to relieve the tight, dry skin on the right side of her chest and vitamin E oil to help break down the scar tissue from her double mastectomy.
“I was told to just stick with the basics and my favorite drugstore product,” she says, “to minimize any extra risk [of infection].”
For a while she added acupuncture every two weeks to her regimen for her scars, which was “super helpful. They got 10 times softer.”
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By the time she’d reached her second semester junior year, in January 2023, McKeon was finally feeling like herself again.
“The brain fog really lifted,” says McKeon, who was sporting a “short little Euro bob” and heading to Rome for a semester abroad. “I 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.”
Following her college graduation in May 2024 she moved back east to be closer to her family.
“They’re everything to me,” says McKeon, whose day-to-day includes two preventative cancer medications, a diet rich in leafy greens and fish and regular workouts—from Pilates and weights to surfing and long walks with her dogs Kona and Bodhi. “These are all just little things that kind of ease my mind when I lay my head on the pillow,” says McKeon, who has a new boyfriend (“He’s a really beautiful part of my life”) and is taking acting classes at the renowned Juilliard School and prepping for auditions.
“I’m definitely eager to get back into the industry. I just never thought I’d be this happy again,” she adds. “I’m so excited for this new chapter. I think really good things are on the horizon."
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