Featured Image Credit: Earl Gibson III/Getty Images for WE tv / Instagram/mamajune
Topics: Celebrity, Health, TV And Film
Emily Brown
Topics: Celebrity, Health, TV And Film
Honey Boo Boo star Mama June Shannon has revealed the heartbreaking news that her eldest daughter's cancer is terminal.
Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell has been diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma; a rare disease in which involves cancer cells forming on the adrenal gland, which sits on top of the kidney.
Anna has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy since her diagnosis, and as she continues to live with the cancer Mama June told Entertainment Tonight she is 'handling it pretty good'.
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Anna's younger sister, Lauryn "Pumpkin" Efird, agreed, saying: "A lot of people thought that it was gonna make her sick and stuff like that, [but] she's able to bounce back pretty quick."
Lauryn said Anna 'genuinely is OK', adding: "She can still go to the grocery store, she can drive herself, she's still able to take the kids to and from places."
However, she noted Anna 'doesn't have hair, she has no eyebrows, she doesn't have any hair on her arms or anything like that'.
Mama June described the situation as an 'emotional rollercoaster', saying: "Mentally it's always on my mind. We know it's terminal.
"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."
While Anna's own daughter, 10-year-old Kaitlyn, is 'aware' that her mum isn't in great health, Lauryn admitted she doesn't seem to 'fully understand'.
"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," Lauryn explained.
Mama June 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."
Anna is also mum to a seven-year-old, named Kylee, who is 'too young to understand' what's going on with her mum.
Anna's next course of treatment for her cancer would be to have immune therapy or clinical trials.
However, Mama June has admitted that she's not sure whether she'll move forward with either option.
"She just wants to see how it's gonna go," Mama June explained. "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."
Though the mum admitted it's 'scary', the family are trying to take things 'one day at a time'.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week