13 July 2023 , 17:06
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Mama June is living up to her motherly nickname and sharing that the family is taking things "one day at a time" after her oldest daughter's cancer diagnosis.
In March 2023, 28-year-old Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell was diagnosed with stage four Adrenal carcinoma, a cancer that affects the adrenal glands which sit on top of a person's kidneys.
And now her mum "Mama June" Shannon has revealed the seriousness of the condition. Speaking about her daughter, June said: "We don't know what to expect because the cancer is very aggressive and it grew from nothing to something huge on the left side of her body really fast."
Anna, her siblings, and mum starred in their own reality TV show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which centred around her younger sister Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson from 2012 to 2017. Alana and Mama June were previously regulars on the reality show Toddlers & Tiaras, as Alana competed in child pageants.
Anna was diagnosed with stage four cancer in March 2023 (Instagram)
Anna has two young daughters who have been affected by her diagnosis (Instagram/ @annamariecardwe39)"She's actually doing pretty good," Mama June continued to tell Entertainment Tonight, despite the grim diagnosis.
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"She can still go to the grocery store, she can drive herself, she's still able to take the kids to and from places," said Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird, Anna's younger sister.
Anna has two children, Kaitlyn, 10, and Kylee, seven. She was previously married to Kylee's father, Michael Cardwell, but separated in 2017. Kaitlyn's birth was featured on the first season of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Her daughters have different views of Anna's cancer diagnosis.
Anna's sisters are hopeful her sister will be alive for a few more years (Getty Images)"The 10-year-old is aware, I don't think she fully understands," Lauryn said, "I think she understands that Mommy is sick and Mommy might not be here for a while."
Kylee, the youngest, is "too young to understand" that anything is going on, according to Alana. So far, the young mother has gone through four rounds of chemotherapy. The family notes that Anna "doesn't have hair, she has no eyebrows, she doesn't have any hair on her arms or anything like that."
"She's able to bounce back pretty quick," Lauryn said of Anna's experience with chemotherapy, "It does wear her body down sometimes but other than that she's good."
Mama June says she doesn't think Anna will move forward with the next course of treatment, or any immune therapy or clinical trials. "We know its terminal," the matriarch devastatingly said.
Anna's sisters are hopeful, and Lauryn cites the quickness of creating a COVID vaccine as hope that her sister will be okay. "The medical field is growing every single day," Lauryn said, "I truly believe eventually there will be a cure for some kind of cancer."