Mama June's Daughter Diagnosed With Stage 4 Cancer
Mama June Shannon's eldest daughter Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell was recently diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma. Cardwell, 28, appeared in both Toddlers & Tiarans and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, alongside her mom and younger sister, Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson. Cardwell, who has two children of her own, began chemotherapy treatments last month.
Family sources told TMZ Cardwell was diagnosed in January. She complained about stomachaches, which led to a series of tests that found cancer in her liver, kidney, and lung. Cardwell had her first round of chemotherapy treatments in February and has already begun losing her hair. Doctors are waiting to see how her body responds to the treatment before deciding what comes next. However, her family is "very hopeful" she will pull through.
Cardwell's family has "pulled together" to help her take care of her children, Kaitlyn, 10, and Kylee, 7. Her boyfriend, Eldridge Toney, has been "by her side" since she was diagnosed, sources told TMZ. Cardwell, who was previously married to Michael Cardwell, went Instagram official with Toney in April 2019.
Cardwell returned to Instagram the day before TMZ broke the news of her diagnosis by sharing a selfie. It was her first post on the platform since July 2022. "Well I ain't posted here in a while," she wrote. "Your girl is back sorry for the photo dump that's going to happen hahah I love y'all and I hope y'all hope y'all are having a good week."
Next, Cardwell published a gallery showing her children with a "pet" they probably shouldn't have brought into the house. "These crazy kids of my mine decided before they go to [their] dad's house they want to give me a heart attack and catch a chipmunk and bring it in the house and wanted it as a pet... and the last photo I can't explain it's Kaitlyn," she wrote. Both posts have garnered thousands of comments from fans wishing her the best.
Cardwell is Shannon's daughter with her ex-boyfriend, David Dunn, who never appeared in the family's reality TV shows. Her relationship with Shannon has been difficult since 2003 when she moved out of her mother's house. She alleged that her mother's then-boyfriend, Mark McDaniel, sexually assaulted her. Although McDaniel is a registered and convicted sex offender, Shannon began dating him again in 2014. Four years later, Cardwell accused her mother of stealing thousands of dollars from her trust fund.
Cardwell and Shannon's relationship has improved recently, though as Cardwell attended her mother's February wedding alongside her three sisters. It was the first time Shannon and her four daughters were together since 2014, Shannon told PEOPLE. Shannon married Justin Stroud at a Georgia courthouse in March 2022, then held a ceremony for her family in February.