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Her practice has been in operation now for 25 years. She’s now a doctor to celebrities like Toni Braxton, T.I. and Usher, among others. The practice is so successful they keep a three to five month waiting list. Walters married her husband, Curtis Berry in 2002, and was looking forward to trying to start a family after a pregnancy loss when she got a surprising diagnosis in 2004. On June 16th, 2008, she got the call from her doctor after a mammogram telling her that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. “The doctor told me I needed to come back in. But as an OB- GYN you hear this all the time,” Walters remembers. “I was like I’ll get to it. They told me I needed a biopsy, and I was like, ‘I don’t have time for that.’” She continued with the surgery she had scheduled to perform that day. But her partner in surgery urged her to get the biopsy. She did and later called for her pathology report which read carcinoma. She was floored.
Tanya Martino 50 Shades of Pink Cancer Survivor and Voorhees Alum
they feel like I can relate to their story. I get to share my breast cancer story with women who are going through the journey.”
Walters started counseling, sending care packages and providing spiritual support for women battling cancer when she started her 50 Shades of Pink foundation. The need for the foundation is great. The stats paint a grim picture. Black women are 42% more likely to die from breast cancer, two times more likely to die from cervical cancer and more likely to die than other communities from ovarian and colon cancer. The foundation deals with the before, the middle and the aftermath of cancer survivors. When Walters would go to her chemo appointments, she’d get dressed up. “I knew it was a mindset,” she recalls about getting through the treatments. 50 Shades of Pink started off giving women lipstick, makeup, warming pads to help with chest pain and drains to wear after a double mastectomy. They have grown to have extravagant fashion galas featuring cancer survivors as the models. “We just want the world to know that even though you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer, you look good,” says Walters. “When you look good, you feel good. And the science behind feeling good is you’ll do good.”
“I was a person with no family history, very healthy,” says Walters.
She went through two surgeries, six months of chemo and 33 cycles of radiation. She learned that after chemo her ovaries were damaged and she was menopausal, so she couldn’t try for a child. She and her husband decided to adopt, but they had to wait five years. By year four, she was diagnosed with cancer again in the opposite breast and had a double mastectomy. With her public persona, she was able to share her story with other cancer survivors on television, and it resonated with her patients.
“I have become the breast cancer doctor, the infertility doctor...” says Walters. “They come from all over the country to me because
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