Like many college students, Miranda McKeon is eager to start her fall semester — as a sophomore at the University of Southern California. “I’m looking forward to the little moments, laughing with my friends about nothing,” McKeon, 19, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Little things that people don’t think about but that make up all the joy you feel.”
Focusing on life’s joys is a priority these days. McKeon, of Ridgewood, NJ — who started her showbiz career in the sixth grade in off-Broadway’sLittle Miss Sunshineand plays Josie Pye in the Netflix seriesAnne with an ‘E’— received the shocking diagnosis of stage 3 breast cancer in June.
“Although I don’t have the best-case scenario,” says McKeon, “I’ve never had a moment where I thought, ‘Am I going to die from this?’ "
Hoping to spread awareness, she’s candidly shared the ups and downs of her journey on her Instagram@Miranda.McKeon, where she has 1 million followers, as well as on her blog,MirandaMcKeon.com.
Miranda McKeon.Patty Connelly Photography
“As statistics go, I am one in a million,“she wrote on June 18, “… literally-look it up on Google.” (Breast cancer is extremely rare in women 15 to 19. The National Cancer Institute reports 2 cases per million women annually.)
Cout4esy Miranda Mckeon
For more of Miranda McKeon’s breast cancer story, pick up a copy of PEOPLE on newsstands Friday
In fact, it was with friends at the Jersey Shore on May 30 when McKeonfelt a lump in her breastwhile adjusting her shirt. “I was pretty freaked out,” she tells PEOPLE. “After I went down a little Google rabbit hole, I assumed nothing was wrong because of my age and no family history of cancer.”
Yet she immediately scheduled a doctor’s appointment, which led to an ultrasound and a biopsy of the lump. In the the weeks since her diagnosis, McKeon’s life has been filled with a whirlwind of tests, scans, fertility treatments (she had her eggs extracted and frozen as a precaution) and, now, chemotherapy at New York City’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. (OnJuly 20 she wrotein her blog: “I recently discovered I have a Check 2 gene mutation, probably the cause of my cancer.")
After four months of chemo, she’ll have surgery and then radiation.
While the chemo has made her feel “overall crummy” at times — her second treatment was last Monday — Miranda continues to work out, surf, take walks and hang out with friends on Monday nights to watchThe Bachelorette.
source: people.com
