A good day. Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell was all smiles as she celebrated her eldest daughter’s graduation from elementary school amid her own cancer battle.
“I am one proud mama right now,” the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alum, 28, wrote via Facebook on Tuesday, May 23, after attending Kaitlyn’s school ceremony. “And I also can’t believe I am going to have a middle schooler and a second grader give me a minute while I go cry my eyes out .”
The former reality star — who shares Kaitlyn, 10, with ex Caleb Clark and daughter Kylee, 7, with ex-husband Michael Cardwell — shared a series of snaps from the event, which included her now-middle schooler giving a speech.
“I am so proud of my girls and everything they have accomplished,” Anna added.
The TLC personality confirmed in March that she was diagnosed with stage IV adrenal carcinoma cancer two months prior. Anna’s form of cancer “is a rare disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the outer layer of the adrenal gland,” according to the National Cancer Institute.
The Georgia native, who is currently dating Eldridge Toney, underwent her first round of chemo in February. One month later, she revealed that she’s started to lose her hair. Photos from the graduation ceremony showed Anna wearing a pink head wrap that covered her scalp.
Earlier this month, Anna’s mom, Mama June Shannon, gave Us Weekly an exclusive update on her eldest daughter’s health amid her second round of treatment. (The matriarch, 43, shares Anna and Jessica Shannon, 26, with ex David Dunn, and daughter Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon, 23, with ex Michael Anthony Ford. The former Mama June: From Not to Hot star shares youngest daughter Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, 17, with ex Mike “Sugar Bear” Thompson.)
“This round of chemo has been kind of different,” the Mama June: Family Crisis star told Us on May 4. “She’s sleeping more. It was kind of rough, this round.”
June noted that she doesn’t always “know how to deal” with her daughter’s health struggles. “I can just imagine, like, if I’m feeling that way as her mom, how she’s feeling that her way as a person who is having to live with it day in, day out,” the Toddlers & Tiaras alum explained.
Anna, for her part, has kept her followers in the loop on her progress, revealing on May 10, that she had started her third round of treatment.
“Yesterday it was [a] pretty good day but [I] did get a little [sick],” Anna wrote via Instagram at the time. “And Cracker Barrel was good going down but not up but over all it’s going good and chemo is working we come to find so things are looking good .”