Anika Rashaun, who appeared on MTV's The Real World and The Challenge, has died at age 34.

ADVERTISEMENT

Anika died on October 1, according to her friend Cyndi Rich's recent Facebook post.

"Anika lived her years fully with a stacked calendar, juggling all her dreams, invites from friends, and always showing up," Cyndi wrote.

"Anika was meeting everyone she could, traveling (but also living) across the world, taking on jobs (often multiple at once), and never settling for anything less than she deserved."

And Cyndi acknowledged that Anika deserved "so much more" than how her "journey ended."

Another close friend, Tiara Ramos, explained how Anika had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer last summer in an October 5 Substack post.

Tiara wrote in the post, titled Breast Friends Forever: RIP to my Sister, that it was a "shock" to learn about Anika's diagnosis.

"Despite her mother having breast cancer years earlier, she was never identified as high-risk or told by her doctors to prioritize mammograms," she 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."

Tiara described her relationship with Anika as incredibly deep and supportive, more like sisters than just best friends.

"I spent more than 20 years of my life with Anika," Tiara continued.

"She was always 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. The way she showed up for her friends, fiercely loyal and loving to the end, was on a whole different level."

Tiara also praised Anika for having the courage to move to Thailand "without knowing a soul," and she added, "[She] appeared on reality TV not once but twice, went skydiving on a first date with a random guy... and started creating her own businesses from the time she was a little girl."

Anika appeared on The Real World: Bad Blood in 2016 and The Challenge: Invasion of the Champions in 2017.

The former dating coach was also training to become a licensed marriage and family therapist, according to her Instagram.

"Anika was beautiful, inside and out. She was kind. She loved without limits," Tiara wrote.

"She loved life. She lived life. She experienced things others could only dream of. She had stories, memories, and moments you would never believe."

Anika opened up about her cancer diagnosis in a podcast interview with Tiara one year before she died.

"I just thought that because I didn't have a history of it, it would never happen to me, but look at us both sitting here right now," Anika said, according to People. "I'm just trying to figure out, where's the cure?"

The pair revealed on the podcast that both of their moms had breast cancer.

"The amount of young women that have been getting breast cancer is just alarming," Anika continued.

"So we want to create that urgency to be aware and do self-examinations and check yourself. And not have the scarcity mindset it can't happen to me, because I had that and it's happening to me right now."

Anika also shared at the time that she was undergoing chemotherapy.

Anika married Kyle Rehn earlier this year on Valentine's Day.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS