Anika Rashaun, who starred on reality shows like “The Challenge” and “Real World,” has died. She was 34.
Rashaun died on Oct. 1, just more than a year after she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Her friend Tiara Ramos confirmed the sad news in a Substack post earlier this month titled, “Breast Friends Forever: RIP to my Sister.” She said Rashaun’s diagnosis was a total “shock,” even with her family’s medical history.
“Despite her mother having breast cancer years earlier, she was never identified as high-risk or told by her doctors to prioritize mammograms,” Ramos wrote. “That was one of the many failures she experienced within the medical system during her time battling cancer. But that is a story for another day…”
Her friend went on to remember Rashaun, a New York City native, as “so unapologetically herself, so real in her stances, her convictions, her beliefs.”
“Her ability to get what she wanted, to talk you into things, to convince you, was one of a kind,” she added. “The way she showed up for her friends, fiercely loyal and loving to the end, was on a whole different level.”
Rashaun was 24 when she first appeared on “MTV’s: The Real World Seattle: Bad Blood” in 2016. The following year, she appeared in “The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions.” In the years since then, she worked as a dating coach and was training to become a licensed marriage and family therapist, according to her Instagram.