Mama June’s Daughter Pumpkin Gives Anna Cardwell a Reality Check Amid Cancer Battle

Lauryn “Pumpkin” Efird gave her sister Anna “Chickadee” Cardwell a reality check amid her cancer battle in a teaser clip for the Friday, February 23, episode of Mama June: Family Crisis shared exclusively with In Touch.

In the clip, Lauryn, 24, visited Anna and their mother, June “Mama June” Shannon, to check in on her sister and bring her a lasagna. Anna shared with Lauryn that she was “feeling a little nauseous,” though said the “chemo’s working.”

“They say I don’t really have any more spots on my lungs. My kidney is a little swollen,” she continued. “The tumor on my kidneys has grown a little bit, but they said that could be cause it’s dying.”

June, 44, added that the doctors advised Anna to “pay attention to her body and how she’s feeling,” while the mother of two explained she needs to “eat more greens and fruits” and cut back on her sugar intake.

While Lauryn argued that Anna should allow herself to “indulge,” June’s eldest daughter explained she wanted to do whatever it took to make sure she was alive to see her daughter Kaitlyn go to high school in four years. “I’ll be all right. We all just going with the flow. That’s what we’re doing. We just going with the flow,” she continued. “We’re dealing with the cards we have been dealt with.”

June appeared supportive of Anna’s attitude, though Lauryn insisted her sister needed to take her health battle more seriously. “We need to know all these things, you know what I’m saying,” she said. “There’s a lot of other stuff besides the cancer stuff that needs to be in order that’s not in order at all.”

Lauryn said she “didn’t like” that the doctors didn’t seem to have a “plan” or provide steps for what Anna and her family should be doing.

June then explained that they asked Anna’s doctors for clarity on her situation, though they want “to see what happens.” The matriarch continued, “I get it. Like, they’re doctors. But I don’t understand it either.”

Anna seemed to have enough of the conversation when she said that Lauryn and June gave her a “headache” and she left the conversation.

The TV personality revealed her stage 4 adrenal carcinoma cancer diagnosis in January 2023, while June confirmed her death in an Instagram post on December 10, 2023. “With the breaking heart, we are announcing that [Anna] is no longer with us,” June wrote at the time. “She passed away in my home last night peacefully at 11:12 PM. She gave one hell of a fight for 10 months. She passed away with her family around her. We will be updating y’all with more information as we get it today. We love y’all and continued prayers and thoughts for our family [during] this difficult time.”

It turns out that not all of Anna’s affairs were in order at the time of her death, including custody arrangements for her daughters. June was awarded custody of Kaitlyn, 11, in December 2023, while her youngest daughter, Kylee, 8, is living with her father and Anna’s ex-husband, Michael Cardwell.

Mama June: Family Crisis airs on ​WEtv Fridays at 9 p.m. ET.