Anne with an E actress Miranda McKeon (Josie Pye) has had to a face a journey that most women twice her age couldn’t fathom. In June, Miranda was diagnosed with a rare occurrence of breast cancer after discovering a lump in her chest. Miranda had to make some very strategic decisions about her treatment. She had to go through eight weeks of chemotherapy. Miranda and her mother also decided that she would undergo a sensory preserving double mastectomy. Below are a few more details via People:
The 19-year-old Anne with an E star was diagnosed with breast cancer in mid-June, an extremely rare occurrence for a teenager, after she found a lump on her chest. In the months since, she’s undergone eight weeks of intensive chemotherapy that left her “a bit bare,” she wrote in an Instagram post reflecting on the experience.
On Wednesday, nearly a month after her last round of chemo, McKeon is set to have a double mastectomy, “the surgery that I’ve been anticipating for almost 5 months,” she wrote in a new post.
“This will get rid of any cancer and significantly decrease my risk of reoccurrence in the future,” she added. “This also means that š„³I will be cancer freeš„³!”
McKeon explained that after thoroughly researching her options with her mom, they decided she will have a sensation preserving mastectomy, meaning that “more care is taken when cutting nerves and nerve grafts are done to reconstruct cut nerves,” and she’ll retain feeling in her chest, unlike traditional mastectomies where the nerves aren’t repaired.
Reading this story made me so sad because Miranda is so young. Miranda is a true beacon of light in her role as wide-eyed and plucky Josie Pye in Anne with an E. I went to Miranda’s Instagram page to watch the video of her after she shaved off her hair (that’s below). Miranda said in the post that losing her hair was the biggest thing causing her anxiety throughout her treatment process. Miranda had a lot of support around her and she embraced this journey with as much joy and acceptance as she could. Less than two percent of breast cancer diagnoses are in patients under 34. I can only imagine the shock and anxiety Miranda and her family must have endured throughout the process. I am happy to read that Miranda will be cancer free and that she is spending time with her family and friends while she recovers.
From left to right: Miranda McKeon, Amybeth McNulty, Kyla Matthews
Photos via Instagram and credit: Ken Woroner/Netflix
Poor baby. What an amazingly positive attitude she has — that will serve her well. I wish her all good things.
Sending her healing thoughts.
Wow – this made me tear up and so angry. Cancer is such a b*tch and I hope she pulls through and thrives!!
Prayers for this incredibly brave youngster šš»
I hope she has a speedy and full recovery.
I had a double mastectomy in April 2021. I didn’t even know sensory preserving surgery was an option. š
I’m a breast surgeon and just learned about the techniques! They don’t apply to a lot of patients and the grafts only work with tissue-based reconstruction, from what I learned at a meeting last weekend.
I’m surprised they didn’t offer her cold capping so she wouldn’t lose her hair.
My youngest patient so far was 27. I can’t even imagine 19 – thank goodness her doctors didn’t shrug it off as a probably benign lesion.
Also a surgeon. Dr. Anne Peled is pretty amazing. She trained in Plastics and did a Breast surgery fellowship at UCSF and she and her husband (also plastic/reconstructive surgeon) use a technique of nerve preservation and nerve graft (cadaveric I think). She gives a great talk on it. She is also herself a breast cancer survivor and is now in her 40s.
My youngest patient is 18. In the course of two years at my hospital, we had an 18-year old, 19-year old, 22-year old, 25-year old. It’s been crazy.
30 years ago when I was a young ICU nurse, I worked with an RT a couple years younger than I was and she shared that she had been diagnosed with BC a few years previously. I was gobsmacked… at that time BC in someone that young wasn’t even touched on during my education. Her mom had had very early BC, too. Of course now with so much genetic research, we know better, but still that diagnosis in someone so young remains shocking.
@nota fan- were those women BRACA (+)? Do you think environment plays a part with all the chemical endocrine disrupters we are exposed to daily from a young age?
In 2015, I was diagnosed at 28 with breast cancer, no family history. I felt a weird lump, and it was confirmed as cancer through a biopsy. Because it was a early stage, and I was so young, my surgeon advised me to do a lumpectomy when I initially planned on doing a mastectomy. He said the outcomes were the same for women diagnosed at the stage I was, and that the mastectomy was needlessly harsh. I hope that decision proves to be the right one. Iām praying for Miranda and sending her so much positive thoughts and energy because cancer sucks. It was hard enough to deal with in my 20s, I canāt imagine having to go through it when I was a teenager. Didnāt help that my oncologist was blasĆ© about me going through chemotherapy saying Iād be fine because I was so young compared to her other patients. Tell that to the blood transfusions I had to get because chemo decimated my red blood cells. Anyhow, Iām so happy to hear about advancements with the mastectomy! When you think about how far weāve come, it makes me emotional. Thanks for sharing!
Insurance rejected the nerve graft for me, because honestly, who needs feeling on your entire torso when you could just be numb forever instead?
Omg. That poor child. I wish her all the best. She is very brave to share her story.
I lost my sister 3 months ago to Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I wasnāt by her side, given my own health struggles, but what she endured was so traumatic and she fought so hard. She had the best team in Boston, but it wasnāt to be. Before she could complete her second round of chemo, her body was done.
Reading this brave young womanās experience and her positive attitude, with her family to rally around her is incredibly brave and inspirational. I hope that Miranda heals beautifully inside and out!! Such a traumatic experience at her tender age. I love that she was able to endure the fight and is still fighting. My greatest happiness is that she is cancer free!! May Miranda live a long and happy life as she takes on her next battle!! She is a warrior!
I hate cancer.
Cancer sucks. This girl and her team are incredible!
LOVE Anne with an E. Best show!
All the luck to this lovely girl. Fuck cancer! My husband has a genetic condition called Lynch Syndrome, he was diagnosed at 24 with stage 3b colon cancer. And he only knew to spend a year fighting for the colonoscopy because his cousin had the same disease. Always check your body for lumps and your stool for blood! His cousin died in his twenties, left behind a beautiful wife and baby. A lot of people in his family had died from it, but they hadnāt really tracked it before they came to the US. The doctor told us 80% of people with the gene get cancer.
We were lucky that his mom paid for us to do PGD IVF so our two little boys donāt have it. It made me super sick, my youngest is three and Iām still sick, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I hope that becomes available to more people.
Side note – the words āJosie Pyeā made me immediately angry on Anneās behalf, funny how that stuff stays with you.
Josie Pye is right up there with Nellie Olesen in the pantheon of fictional frenemies.
Thank you for sharing your story. I wish your family continued good health.
I’m so impressed with this young woman & I wish all the best to her. I hate breast cancer, it killed my mother, and I had no idea that double-mastectomy left her chest numb, she didn’t say a word. I remember her being upset at the lack of sewing skills on the part of the surgeon–one of the ‘seams’ didn’t lie flat; my mom was an excellent seamstress and that really bugged her. But nothing about numbness. I’m also impressed Miranda found that lump herself; I remember at 23 going to a doctor for something else & he found the lump in my breast. I was lucky, it turned out to be a fibroadenoma (non-cancerous), but who thinks about these things at that age?
I was diagnosed in May, and let me tell y’all, having a doctor tell you that you need to amputate both of your murder boobs is a bit of a mindf**k.
I was diagnosed with TNBC in May 2020 (finished treatment about 6 weeks ago) and murder boobs is the right term.
Omg, she’s so young! I hope she continues to enjoy better health in the days ahead. Best of luck to her.
(Even if Josie Pye is a pye š)
In 2020, at 43 years old, I thought I was Young to receive a breast cancer diagnosis and move through this journey… along the way, I continue to meet younger and younger women facing this scary diagnosis…. 19 is the youngest I’ve heard now; it breaks my heart. I send her, and all the warriors like her, love & respect. #fuckcancer