GAIL WHITE After unexpected turn, woman helps others following same road

You never know what curve life is going to throw you around the next bend.
When JoAnn Esposito of New Castle was diagnosed with breast cancer last March, her life took an unexpected turn.
Now a year later, Esposito has found that those curves and unexpected turns she experienced have somehow come full circle. Not only is she on the road to recovery, her path, guided by those who love her, is leading her back to the one who helped her into remission in the hope that others may be cured.
On March 13, 2003, Esposito was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer.
"There is no cure for stage 4 cancer," Esposito was told by her doctors. Her fight would be one of remission. She remembers one doctor telling her, "You can live with cancer or you can die with cancer."
Esposito knew that she wanted to live.
Began treatments
She began nine chemotherapy treatments. Along with the chemotherapy, once a week Esposito received Herceptin, a drug for estrogen positive cancer.
Esposito was surprised to learn that the Herceptin treatment had been researched and developed by a doctor in California who is a native of her hometown of New Castle, Dr. Dennis Sloman.
The drug that this "neighbor" had developed played an important role inhibiting the growth of Esposito's cancer.
"It's a small world," Esposito says while smiling.
Throughout her treatment, Esposito's children, Bradley and Brian, were not only a great support for her, they became an inspiration.
When Esposito lost her hair during her chemotherapy treatments, Bradley and Brian shaved their heads.
When her treatment began, they arranged for flowers to arrive every month.
It was the flowers that brought the next curve into Esposito's life.
Having a lifelong interest in painting, Esposito decided to paint the flowers that her sons sent her.
"Each month the flowers came, I painted them," she explains.
As more flowers and gifts arrived from family and friends, she began to paint each one on a note card and send it as a thank you.
Today, Esposito has note cards professionally printed with her paintings on them that she sells at local shops and boutiques.
"Each one has a story," she says, looking at a note card. A bit of her heart is painted in each one.
A portion of the proceeds from the cards Esposito sells will be donated to Par for a Cure, a celebrity golf classic, created by Esposito's son, Brian, a golf professional in Las Vegas.
"Our initial goal is raising funds for ongoing breast cancer research," Brian explains. "Our ultimate goal is to become a nationally recognized celebrity golf tournament enabling us to raise the funds needed to eradicate breast cancer."
Bringing the curves and turns nearly full circle, Par for a Cure will donate a portion of its proceeds to Dr. Sloman at the UCLA Medical Center for the continued research of breast cancer.
"Together we can make a difference," Esposito writes on the back of her note cards.
Working together, embracing the sometimes difficult curves of life, is truly the only way to make a difference -- it has to come full circle.
gwhite@vindy.com