Mama June reveals daughter Anna’s ‘scary’ cancer is terminal after fourth round of chemo
“Mama June” Shannon described life as an “emotional roller coaster” as she revealed her daughter Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell’s cancer is terminal.
“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,” Shannon, 43, told “Entertainment Tonight” Wednesday, noting that Cardwell, 28, has completed four rounds of chemotherapy.
The “Mama June: Family Crisis” star’s daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird chimed in, “A lot of people thought that [the treatment] was gonna make her sick and stuff like that, [but] she’s able to bounce back pretty quick.”
Efird’s younger sister, Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, added, “It does wear her body down sometimes, but other than that, she’s pretty good.”
Efird, 23, explained that Cardwell “can still go to the grocery store, she can drive herself [and] she’s still able to take the kids to and from places.”
However, the mother of two “doesn’t have hair, she has no eyebrows [and] she doesn’t have any hair on her arms or anything like that,” according to Efird.
Efird also offered an update on her big sister’s daughters, Kaitlyn, 10, and Kylee, 7.
“The 10-year-old is aware. I don’t think she fully understands,” she shared.
“I think she understands that Mommy is sick and Mommy might not be here for a while. She’s 10, but she’s a lot more mature than that because she’s been raised around older people.”
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Shannon added, “Kaitlyn was always close with Anna, but now she doesn’t go anywhere without Anna. I get that because she’s thinking if Anna goes somewhere, then maybe Anna might not be at the house when she gets back.”
As for Cardwell’s next course of treatment, her options include immunotherapy or clinical trials, according to her mom.
“She just wants to see how it’s gonna go,” the “Toddlers & Tiaras” alum said, noting it was “scary” that they do not know “what is going to happen next.”
“For me, it’s an emotional roller coaster sometimes. Mentally it’s always on my mind. … We know it’s terminal,” the Shannon family matriarch went on.
“She’s stage 4. She’s not gonna go into remission. We’ve all accepted that, so I just tell people ‘one day at a time’ ’cause you never know.”
Meanwhile, Efird said she was hopeful that new treatments could become available.
“Honestly, who’s not to say a year from now they’ll have a cure. The medical field is growing every single day,” she noted.
Thompson, 17, is also holding out hope that her sister continues fighting.
“It is crazy to think that she will not be here probably in five years, but I’m hoping that she can pull through and fight 10, 20 years,” she said.
June, who is also the mother of Jessica “Chubbs” Shannon, 26, previously revealed Cardwell was diagnosed with the illness in January.
She relocated to Georgia with her husband, Justin Stroud, to support her ailing daughter a few months later.
