Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell 'Never Wanted to Know' How Much Time Doctors Thought She Had Left (Exclusive)

"We knew time was limited but we agreed and asked the doctor to not give us a time," Eldridge Toney tells PEOPLE of his wife, who died Saturday at age 29

Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell “never wanted to know” how much time she had left while fighting cancer, her husband Eldridge Toney reveals.

Cardwell was diagnosed with stage 4 adrenal carcinoma in January. Toney tells PEOPLE that the reality star, who died on Saturday at age 29, tried to stay strong during her battle rather than focusing on the possibility of not surviving the disease.

“At first, what we thought was kidney stones was actually a mass but we were told it was stage 2 and she was clear," Toney recalls of her diagnosis. “When the doctor in Atlanta called us on a video chat and said it was stage 4, my stomach dropped but I did my best to keep calm for Anna.”

“But Anna did her best to stay strong,” he continues. “She was super strong for her family. She was in so much pain all the time, and we knew what the stage 4 diagnosis meant but we agreed not to talk to the doctor about an exact time frame. We agreed we did not want to be told she has six months or something like that. But there was a realistic factor.”

"We knew time was limited but we agreed and asked the doctor to not give us a time," Toney adds. "We never wanted to know.”

Related: Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell's Sister Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird Shares Touching Family Photo from Early Days of Chemo

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Toney, who married Cardwell in March after she learned of her cancer diagnosis, says he supported his wife nonstop while she was going through chemotherapy.

Cardwell was being treated in Atlanta — a far drive from where they lived in Milledgeville, Georgia. With her chemo often happening in consecutive days, Toney frequently had to make the difficult decision to be away from his wife in order to work and support their family.

“I tried to be there as much as I could but we both agreed that bills had to be paid and I needed to work,” Toney says. “But when she called me I would drop what I was doing and drive to be by her side. Even when it meant leaving at 3 am to make it back at work by 6 am.”

“There were also times when she was scared and I stayed by her side in the hospital,” he adds. “That meant taking off work, with no pay, because I didn't want her to be alone. I would do that all over again. I wish I could have never left her side. But we agreed that I needed to work because bills kept coming in.”

After months of treatment, Toney said he was “holding her hand when she took her final breath.”

Related: Anna 'Chickadee' Cardwell's Husband Recalls Her Final Breath: 'I Was Holding Her Hand' (Exclusive)

Cardwell's mother Mama June Shannon confirmed the Toddlers & Tiaras and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo star's death Sunday on Instagram.

"With the breaking heart, we are announcing that @annamarie35 is no longer with us. She passed away in my home last night peacefully at 11:12 PM," Shannon, 44, wrote next to a family photograph. The family matriarch noted that Cardwell "passed away with her family around her" and thanked fans for their "continued prayers and thoughts."

Cardwell’s family and friends gathered Wednesday for her funeral at the Williams-White Columns Funeral Home in Gordon, Georgia.

Following her death, Toney tells PEOPLE that he vowed to his wife to keep her memory alive for her daughters — Kaitlyn Elizabeth, born in 2012, and Kylee Madison, born in 2015.

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