Dawn Adamson was abused as a child, and the feelings of being unworthy she developed carried on into her marriage.

"I was in an abusive relationship for eight years," Adamson said. "My names that I was called on a daily basis were 'dumb,' 'stupid' and 'idiot.'"

She suffered with the emotional abuse and controlling, manipulative behaviour for years, without knowing how to explain what was happening to her.

"I didn't know what abuse was. Never in school...where did we learn this?" she said. 

Adamson finally left her husband, and went through eight years of therapy to deal with the emotional ramifications, during which time her ex was still harassing her and members of her family.

Still, she persevered, and earned two bachelors degrees and a masters degree in counselling, with the aim of help women in similar situations to her own. 

"If I had gone into addiction or if I had just stayed the victim, if I had just laid in bed for the rest of my life and just wallowed in pain, then he would have won," Adamson said. "But I knew I had the strength to heal myself, and I did."

Adamson is a speaker at the fifth annual South Okanagan Women in Need Society's Walk to End Abuse, coming up on June 3.

"Likely everybody that is going to attend that walk has had some form of abuse in their life," SOWINS development advisor Marni Adams said. "We all need to talk about it, heal from it, find the support and resources."

The walk is sponsored by Parker's Chrysler, whose general manager Jim Tabler is thrilled to be offering assistance to what he called an important organization in the South Okanagan.

"Anyone seeing the difference SOWINS has made and how their programs continue to impact the community will see clearly why we are committed to them," Tabler said. 

The event raises funds through donations given to participating teams and individuals, as well as raising awareness.

"Women and children are going to be watching us," Adams said. "Let's show them that we can break that silence, we can stop that violence, together."

The walk starts at Rotary Park at 10 a.m. with breakfast provided by Earls and ends at Loco Landing. To register to participate in the walk or to donate, visit the SOWINS website here.