Johanna Silver Gordon was strong and fit and loved her life as a teacher at Southfield Lathrup High School.

Then she was struck down by cancer and her family had to find meaning in what seemed like a senseless loss.  It took thousands of hours of work, but they did it.

U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, announced this week that authorization for "Johanna's Law: The Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act" unanimously passed both houses of Congress.  Congress is expected to use the act to appropriate about $16 million to a public information campaign to educate women across the country about gynecological cancers.

Headed to President George W. Bush for his signature, Johanna's Law would require the government to develop a coordinated strategy for outreach to women and health care providers about risk factors and early warning signs for gynecological cancers.

"This is a real victory for everyone who has been fighting to get the facts out about gynecological cancers," Levin said.  "In this case, knowledge can actually save women's lives by ensuring that we detect the cancers at their most treatable stage.   I hope this first step with Johanna's Law leads to even more action, and we can leverage all the public and private resources at our disposal."

Johanna's Law was introduced by Levin in July, 2003, at Gilda's Club in Royal Oak at the urging of Johanna Gordon's sister, Sheryl Silver, who approached the congressman about Johanna, who died in 2000 after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer.

Gordon, 58 when she died, had always focused on nutrition and regular exercise because, she said, her students and her daughter couldn't afford for her to get sick.

She went to several doctors complaining about stomach pain, heartburn and bloating, and like many women Gordon was diagnosed with gastrointestinal distress and sent on her way.  Her cancer was Stage 3 when she was finally diagnosed.

Experts say just 20 percent of women survive a Stage 3 diagnosis, and only 25-30 percent of gynecological cancers are diagnosed in Stage 1, when the survival rate is 80 to 90 percent.

When Silver obtained that information, she wanted to help other women avoid the pain her family experienced.  She approached Levin and started lobbying groups to get in touch with their legislators to pass Johanna's Law.

"You have to be polite and persistent and wear people down," said Silver, a Florida resident, from her mother's house in Bloomfield Hills.  "I put together these talking points that were compassionate and cost-effective to convince them (members of Congress) and it seemed to work.  It was really by virtue of persistence."

Silver worked tirelessly to get people on board and said many cancer survivors and their families helped out.  The law had an impressive 144 co-sponsors.

"I couldn't stand not only that my sister died prematurely, but needlessly," Silver said.  "Many of the women who worked on this were ill and then died.  When you're part of this community, you know someone every day is attending a funeral of someone they loved and cared about.  Once you see that, I just couldn't let it go."

There is no single test to reliably detect early stage cervical cancer in women without symptoms, but a combination of blood tests, ultrasound and a biopsy can diagnose it ? though women sometimes have to insist on the tests.

That's where Johanna's Law comes into play, Silver said.  If women know the symptoms, they can demand physicians take every measure to get the right diagnosis.

"Until we have a test that reliably picks it up at Stage 1, all we can do is provide women with the appropriate knowledge and information to be sure they know what to ask for," Silver said.  "We want to be sure women know the right questions to ask to get diagnosed quickly."

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