In 2016, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, in which she confessed only to her family and closest associates. According to her husband
Edward Shearmur, she hid the diagnosis because she didn't want the disease to determine her and felt that if people found out about her diagnosis, it would overshadow everything else. Shearmur continued to work on projects in the cinema including
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). She passed away on January 19, 2018 at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age 54.