3 generations of Native Hawaiian women face breast cancer diagnoses
Three generations of women in one Native Hawaiian family are sharing how they supported each other through breast cancer diagnoses that came years, and in two cases just months, apart.
Dawn Turner was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2023, eight years after her mother, Sharleen Turner, received her own breast cancer diagnosis.
"We love wholeheartedly. We love fiercely and we're always going to be there for one another, no matter what," Dawn Turner said in an interview that aired Thursday on "Good Morning America."
"If it wasn't for these two women and the rest of our family, I wouldn't have been able to make it through my diagnosis," she added.
For Sharleen Turner, having already experienced breast cancer herself did not make watching her daughter go through treatment any easier.
"It's your child and you want to protect your child from everything," she said. "Having to watch her go through the chemotherapy, having her lose her hair, which was so important to her. She had been a hula dancer all her life with the long hair...for a parent it's really tough."
Dawn Turner underwent treatment in Honolulu, where she stayed at the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge, which provides free lodging for cancer patients and their caregivers.
Then, as Dawn Turner was nearing the end of radiation treatment, her grandmother, Shirley Kauhaihao, delivered unexpected news.
"She said, 'Here, I have to tell you something.' And I said, 'OK, Krams, what's going on?' And she said, 'I found a lump, and it's positive.' And in that moment, I was scared," Dawn Turner recalled.
"We were thinking, okay, she's at the end of her treatment and it'll be okay. And then ... Mom gets it," Sharleen Turner said.
Dawn Turner and Sharleen Turner quickly stepped in to help Kauhaihao navigate her own breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.
"They already experienced it and knew what to be expected and so I can follow the lead," Kauhaihao said.
The timing of their treatments brought the family's cancer journeys even closer together.
"My last night at Hope Lodge was grandma's first night at Hope Lodge," Dawn Turner said.
Despite breast cancer affecting three generations of their family, all three women tested negative for BRCA gene mutations.
Native Hawaiian women have the highest breast cancer incidence rate in the U.S., at 177.2 cases per 100,000 women, according to a 2026 American Cancer Society report. The rate is 27% higher than that of White women.
Separately, a 2026 study led by researchers at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center that followed 7,700 Native Hawaiian women found BMI was a consistent predictor of breast cancer risk. The researchers said further studies examining ancestry, body composition and social factors could help better understand breast cancer disparities among Native Hawaiian women.
For Dawn Turner and her family, sharing their story is a way to encourage other women to stay on top of breast cancer screening and talk openly about the disease.
"Getting your mammograms every year, even if it's not in your family, even if you have a negative genetic testing, it's so important," she said. "For us as Native Hawaiian women...even just to talk about it within our own communities...Grandma always says, that's the main goal...just to keep talking about it because you can help others."
