(Published in the Huntsville Times, Thursday, June 30, 2011. Click for story.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Huntsville ovarian cancer survivor Susan Leighton had just four minutes to make an impression on Capitol Hill.

"I told my personal story - very quickly," Leighton said of her testimony last Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Leighton, a founding member of the local Lilies of the Valley ovarian cancer support and advocacy group, hopes she convinced them not to slash the Department of Defense's $20 million a year ovarian cancer research budget.

A House budget subcommittee wants to cut the program to $16 million next year.

"I went up there to try to get them to at least flat fund it at $20 million," Leighton said Wednesday.

The Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, which is battling the proposed budget cuts, invited Leighton to Washington to speak on behalf of all women with ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth-leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States, claiming about 15,000 lives annually.

Leighton said she was only slightly nervous as she made her pitch to Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa; Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi, and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.

The former Army personnel specialist talked about her Stage 3 ovarian cancer diagnosis in the summer of 1997, and about the chemotherapy drugs that helped her beat the disease.

"The research that led to the discovery of those two agents saved my life," she told the senators. "I saw my daughter graduate from Auburn University, begin a great career and walk down the aisle to marry.

"Unfortunately, the majority of women diagnosed do not have this fairy tale ending."

More research is the key to improving survival rates for ovarian cancer, she testified. "We are on the precipice of understanding how ovarian cancer develops, grows and spreads - and ultimately eliminating it."

Leighton said Shelby was especially complimentary of her testimony.

"He totally got it," she said. "He said we need to support this program if we can.

"I walked away with the impression that if the funds were there, they would do it."