Anne with an E star, Miranda McKeon, has opened up about being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 19. Anne with an E was a Netflix original series based off the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery. McKeon portrayed Josie Pye, a friend and schoolmate of Anne Shirley. The series ran for three seasons before Netflix cancelled it. Anne with an E's cancellation sparked petitions for its renewal as viewers expressed outrage at the sudden cancellation.
Anne with an E received positive reviews as many praised it for its accurate depiction of the life of an orphan girl and for how it touched on heavy topics of child abandonment, trauma, race, and feminism. McKeon's Josie illustrated many of these topics as she struggled with an abusive family member and often turned to bullying as an outlet. However, she grows as an individuals and soon even finds an ally in Anne. Her character's strength and growth was impressive, but perhaps pales in comparison to McKeon's real-life strength.
In an interview with People, McKeon opened up about receiving a breast cancer diagnosis at age 19. McKeon was spending a weekend at a beach house with friends when she noticed a lump on her breast. An ultrasound and biopsy soon confirmed that she had breast cancer - making her case 1 in a million due to her young age. Her cancer is considered stage 3 due to its spread to her lymph nodes and McKeon will have to undergo four months of chemotherapy, followed by radiation and potential surgery. However, the likelihood of her recovery is strong due to her age and overall health. For now, she is remaining strong and striving to find beauty in it all. She has begun to document her journey in a blog, hoping that she can inspire, comfort, and heal others in similar situations. Check out her statement below:
My doctor was like, 'Your stage doesn't define you. And your cancer is your cancer.' Which I appreciate because when you hear someone's stage, your mind goes straight to one place or another and I don't think that's necessarily representative of what I'm going through. Although I don't have the easiest case scenario, like I wish it hadn't spread to my lymph nodes or that it was a little less complicated, I never had a moment where I was like, 'Oh, am I going to die from this?' That was never really a thought. I think this entire time it's been more of like, 'Okay, we're going to treat this and solve it.' I'm making it my job to find the beauty in all of this. I wouldn't have chosen this, I didn't choose this, I don't think anyone would choose this. But I'm making it my job to try and pull something out of this. My blog is the one thing that is super tangible that has come out of this where I'm like, 'Damn, this is awesome.' I'm hoping that by documenting a good majority of this, that someone else will be able to read it down the line when they need it and they can find comfort and healing through it in the way that I do writing it. I feel like as humans, we look at other people in other situations and think, wow, how are they doing that? Or wow, I could never do that. And I probably would have thought the same thing about myself, but here I am and I'm now living in this story and I think we can all handle a lot more than we think we can.
The former Anne with an E star showed incredible maturity and poise in her discussion. Being diagnosed with breast cancer at 19 is extremely rare, with less than 2% of all cases being diagnosed before age 34. McKeon also acknowledged that there are many other sides to having cancer as a female that most don't hear about, such as freezing her eggs as a precautionary step should her cancer effect her childbearing. Yet, McKeon doesn't pity herself and acknowledges that while her diagnosis is complicated, she is lucky that it is treatable and most likely not fatal. She didn't choose her diagnosis, but she has made it her mission to make something meaningful out of it through her writing.
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