Getty; Courtesy of Anna Cardwell/Instagram
June ‘Mama June’ Shannon Breaks Silence on Anna Cardwell’s Final Days in Her Cancer Battle
June “Mama June” Shannon opened up about her daughter Anna Cardwell’s heartbreaking final days in her cancer battle.
“She passed away in mine and Justin [Stroud]’s home,” June, 44, told The Daily Mail on Wednesday, January 31, adding that Anna had been staying at the house in the days leading to her death. “Eldridge and the girls and her were living there for three weeks and one day.”
She continued, “[I was] hearing her scream my name at night, hearing her little oxygen cord going round … She would not keep her oxygen on for anything.”
The matriarch revealed that Anna, who died at 29 years old on December 9, 2023, would only accept medicine from her eldest daughter, Kaitlyn, and the family made sure to shower Anna with love until her final breath.
“She fought until the very end. You could tell at the end that she was ready. She was done,” Mama June’s daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird added. “She fought as much as she could so I was telling her, “It’s OK, everybody’s here … It definitely happened very quickly. It went from one to five years to 10 months very quickly.”
As for how Anna’s two daughters, Kaitlyn and Kylee, are handling the loss, Mama June admitted Kaitlyn is “still in shock.”
“Unlike Kylee, Kaitlyn was there when Anna took her last breath,” the WeTv personality told the outlet. Meanwhile, Lauryn, 24, added, “I’m sure at times it must keep Kaitlyn up but teenagers aren’t going to say that. We always make sure to ask her how she’s doing, if she’s okay, tell her that it’s OK to cry.”
The pair agreed that their main focus was to keep Anna’s memory alive for her kids. “It sucks. Going on in life and … her not being here really kind of f–ks with you at the end of the day,” Lauryn concluded.
Anna’s adrenal cancer diagnosis was first discovered after the mother of two complained of stomach aches and underwent a series of tests. Cancer was discovered in her liver, kidney and lung and her younger sister Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson confirmed the news via Instagram in March 2023.
“[And] this is what I mean when I say you never truly know what somebody is going through at home, no matter how famous they are,” the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum wrote while sharing a TMZ article about the diagnosis. “Yes, I’m very famous, but normal sh–t happens to me and my family [and] y’all need to realize that asap.”
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