When St. Thomas first-year student Miranda Mead was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, she was given a 30 percent chance to live. She defied those odds and is now cancer free.

Mead was a typical high school student. She ran cross country, got good grades in school and was an active member of her Wayzata community.

“Three days after my 16th birthday they found the 6-inch tumor at the base of my spine,” Mead said. She had been mis-diagnosed many times and the doctors had finally pinpointed the issue.

Mead was diagnosed Dec. 1, 2015, with stage-four Ewing’s Sarcoma, a cancerous tumor that grows in the bones or the tissue of the bones. The tumor was at the base of her sacrum and the cancer had spread to her lungs.

Mead went through 14 rounds of chemotherapy. She lost all her hair and got casts for her legs for muscle atrophy. Muscle atrophy is when the nerves and muscles in the calf shrink. Mead stayed positive by volunteering and being part of different cancer groups.

“Volunteering and making a difference in my community was one way to help me move on and make a purpose out of my life while I was in treatment,” Mead said.

Mead was cancer free halfway through her treatment. The treatment continued to kill all cancer cells. Today, she is three years cancer free.

As a communication and journalism major, Mead hopes to report for WCCO or work for the Children’s Hospital in the communications department.

Mead does not run anymore, because of the muscle atrophy in her ankles, but has taken up weight-lifting.

“Weight-lifting has been a huge passion for me, it helps get to my competitive side,” Mead said.
Mead enjoys working out and weight lifting to feed her competitive side which she misses from not being able to run cross country anymore.

Her personal best is squatting 200 percent of her body weight.

Mead chooses to look toward the future instead of dwelling on the past. She enjoys going to St. Thomas and thinks that the staff has been very supportive of her and what she has gone through.

“St. Thomas has challenged me and allowed me to grow as a student,” Mead said.

This past fall Mead was on the dean’s list, has a 3.82 GPA and will be applying to the St. Thomas Aquinas Scholars Honors Program.

“I think I have a lot to offer the honors program because I have a unique perspective and I have a love for learning,” Mead said.

St. Thomas sophomore Maxwell Pfau described Mead as, “energetic, outgoing, positive and bubbly.”

Pfau is Mead’s boyfriend and has supported Mead during her follow-up doctor’s visits to make sure the cancer has not returned.

Although Mead’s cancer has a 70 percent chance of returning, she will not let that get in her way of living life to the fullest.

Rae Beaner can be reached at rnbeaner696@stkate.edu.