TEMPLE, Texas — This Sunday, Oct. 22, the ‘Pink and Purple Tea’ event is going on at the Cultural Activities Center in Temple. The event focuses on awareness, education and celebrating domestic abuse and breast cancer survivors.
I would find myself really conflicted trying to get to breast cancer events. And so I thought, why not combine them. So I brought some of my colleagues together to combine both events so we can bring awareness, education, and celebrate survivors of both," said Dr. Kerry-Anne Zamore, domestic abuse survivor. She is sharing her story in hopes of inspiring others.
"In speaking with several of my girlfriends who are breast cancer survivors, I realized that some of the some of the emotions that we experience from victim to survivor, or from a person who's freshly diagnosed with breast cancer going through the process, some of it was very similar self esteem, self worth, not feeling like a whole woman, it was was was very, very similar," Dr. Zamore said.
Dr. Zamore is a professor at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton teaching future social workers. She is also the author of six books, four adults and two children's books.
However, before all of this, Dr. Zamore was fighting a battle than many people didn't know about.
"It was a situation of horrible domestic violence for almost 14 years, you know, I was not able to come from that relationship, because I didn't want to break up my family, I was truly afraid," Dr. Zamore said.
"I almost lost my life," said Dr. Zamore. She says her then-husband, college sweetheart, abused her.
"It was emotional, it was verbal, it was physical," Dr. Zamore. "I had bruised ribs, I had bruises from top to bottom, I had my hair pulled out of the root. It was horrible, it was horrible."
The two had kids together--and were fairly well off. They were both educated, Dr. Zamore says she had two master degrees at the time. Which she says made it harder to leave.
"I didn't look like the typical victim, or what I thought a typical victim look like," Dr. Zamore said.
According to a 2022 report by the Texas Council on Family Violence, 216 Texans were killed by an intimate partner seven were in Bell and McLennan counties.
“If it were that easy, then 1 in 4 persons would not be victims of domestic violence,” Dr. Zamore said.
Now, Dr. Zamore is helping others overcome. “I have been able to use it to truly helped my community and families. It I think it was intended to break me, but it made me stronger.”
Tickets for the 'Pink and Purple Tea' can be found here. They cost $60 -$500 and the event runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on October 22, 2023